Extending political participation in China: new opportunities for citizens in the policy process

Authoritarian political systems are portrayed as offering few opportunities for citizens to participate in politics – particularly in the policy process. This paper’s contribution is to set out new mechanisms that enable Authoritarian political systems are portrayed as offering few opportunities for citizens to participate in politics – particularly in the policy process. This paper’s contribution is to set out new mechanisms that enable Chinese citizens to evaluate government performance, contribute to decision-making, shape policy agendas and feed back on implementation. Based on fieldwork in the city of Hangzhou, we argue that the local party-state orchestrates citizen participation in the policy process, but members of the public nevertheless do have influence. Political participation is widening in China, but it is still controlled. It is not yet clearly part of a process of democratization, but it does establish the principle of citizen rights to oversee the government

EGovernance implementation model: Case study of the federal government agencies of Pakistan

Copyright @ 2013 EMCIS.This study examines the eGovernance potential to bring about structural changes in the way in which government agencies operate, interact and communicate internally and externally with its citizens. Public sector needs to adopt eGovernance that is focused on the citizen satisfaction. In many developed countries, the types and quality of public services provided by a Government to its citizens have evolved over time, due to their change in thinking regarding the role of Government, from being a traditional government to that of being a modern service provider. Thus, this study will focus on the complaint management information systems of the selected federal government agencies in Pakistan. Authors were able to derive the implementation model of eGovernance only after doing analysis of all of the data obtained from questionnaires, interviews and observations at the federal government level in Pakistan. Authors found that the overall outcome of the validation process indicated that the model is highly satisfactory to improve the overall eGovernance system to provide modern services to its citizens

Bridging the gap between police and citizens: what we know, what we've done, and what can be done

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017There is a long history of distrust between police and citizens and there have been no meaningful and sustained steps to correct this situation. Death and injuries are sustained by citizens and police, but still there has not been a real attempt to prevent this occurring because there is no trust between police and citizens and this lack of trust has created a rift or gap between police and citizens and this projects aim is to address the gap. Research into what causing damage and finding a way to repair the damaged relationship between police and citizens by way of finding approaches that tend to lead to trust between groups of people. Communication, a better ethics base for police, training and education, restorative justice, media, and the studying of social theories will help find a way to repair the damage. A collaboration of all of the aforementioned categories will tend to help bridge the gap between police and citizens. It is believed that by addressing the issues and the roots of the problems between police and citizens, a new relationship built on trust will emerge. By having a more trusting relationship there will be less harm caused to police and citizens

EMPOWERING CITIZENS’ VOICES IN THE ERA OF E-GOVERNMENT: IMPLICATIONS FROM SOUTH KOREAN CASES

The rise of the Internet sparked an intense debate on the democratic potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This research illustrates how web technologies enable ordinary citizens to articulate their interests in policy processes and enhance the organizational intelligence of local governments. The two South Korean cities introduced in this article adopted internet applications that allowed citizens to contact public officials or city mayors directly, resulting in dramatic increases in online civic input into local governance. Citizens’ political efficacy was encouraged both by government feedback and by the system that enabled their evaluation of the feedback. Despite the substantive contributions of the applications to local governance, formalistic responses from some public officials indicate challenges in building citizens’ trust in government through the use of ICTs. To address the challenges, it is necessary to cultivate the innovative leadership of senior public mangers and develop the institutional mechanisms encouraging public officials’ sincere responses to citizens’ online requests.E-government, Internet, Citizen Participation, Civic Engagement, Urban Governance.

Talking to the Empowered Consumer Dealing with the Shift of Power

The concept of the empowered consumer cannot be considered as a field of exact scientific research yet. Nevertheless, it has become part of scholars’ interest and gains more and more importance in the research of organisational relationships with customers. It is suggested that two influencing criteria are especially at the forefront: The emergence of the Internet, which effected that barriers to collect and to disseminate information across boundaries were decisively reduced. As a consequence consumers could organise globally and collect and exchange information and experiences about organisations and their products. Furthermore, flexible interactivity between companies and consumers, but particularly from consumers to consumers enable direct interaction changing many previously established rules of doing business. Due to these new opportunities new business models developed and the proposition is that intangible values such as reputation gained even more importance and influence tangible outcomes. Suggestions are that 1.), this concept links communication, corporate behaviour and legitimacy of activities influencing reputation as a driver of value. 2.), reputation as a corporate asset can be managed but it is beyond the pure control of an organisation. 3.), reputation is part of public perception, which an organisation has to build, maintain and expand depending on communicative abilities and willingness to accept consumers as a centre of power. The following discussion will present Grunig et al.’s communication model explaining changed organisational challenges. It is put forward as a framework for marketing for times in which online opportunities added to the earlier b2b and b2c models c2c and P2P considerations and architectures. The annual studies of the market research institute puls undertaking regular representative research among German consumers since November 2005 will present evidence for the relationship of improved prices, which may be achieved, and the perception a firm possesses. This paper deals mostly with German examples and data, but the hypothesis is that a) the general situation in other Western countries is alike, but needs b) specific additional research, since cultural differences are expected to have a considerable influence, especially when criteria such as individualist and collectivist organisation of society and high and low context communication styles are involved. Hence, the results of the same study in different countries are therefore expected to present some variation. Additionally, the Cluetrain Manifesto challenges corporate behaviour of those companies still believing to have the ability to control information disseminated by and written about it. Examples provided will support the hypothesis that powerful consumers may have significant impact on organisational behaviour, decision-making and outcomes. Keywords: Empowered Consumer Concept, Symmetric Two-way communication, Reputation, c2c, P2

Electronic administration in Spain: from its beginnings to the present

This study presents the basic lines of electronic administration in Spain. The complexity of the Spanish political-administrative system makes such a study challenging, in view of the considerable degree of autonomy and competences of the regional administrative bodies and local agencies with respect to the central government, the former being more visible in the 17 regions of Spain. Nonetheless, the central government maintains a series of legal instruments that allow a certain common framework of action to be imposed, aside from what is put into effect through diverse programs aimed precisely to develop common tools for the regions and municipalities of Spain. After an introduction that provides some necessary background, this study describes the legislative framework in which Spain's electronic administrative system has developed. The data included in the study refer to investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the services offered by the different Administrations on the internet; internet access by citizens, homes, businesses, and employees, as well as the interactivity existing with administrations by means of the internet; the origins and rise of various political initiatives of the Central Government involving electronic administration; and finally, the situation of civil service personnel, as catalysts of the success of Information Society in the Public Administration within Spain

Social and democratic participation in residential settings for older people: realities and aspiration

This paper explores some of the experiences of older people living in residential settings (sheltered, very sheltered housing and residential care), in the context of theories of participation, consumerism and citizenship. It draws on material from personal interviews undertaken with over 100 older people in England and Wales, and also from discussions with staff. Two-thirds of respondents were aged over 85. A significant minority of residents expressed some concerns about the routines of life, such as meals and social contact. Staff expectations of social participation were often unrealistic : for many residents, social contact was more a matter of adjustment than of friendship. Residents did not participate in deciding how the residential settings where they lived should be organised and managed, except for helping with simple domestic tasks. There is a need to change both attitudes and practice to enable older people to participate more fully in these settings

Stakeholder dialogue as an institutional strategy for sustainable development in China : the case of community environmental roundtables

Stakeholder dialogue, as an alternative institutional strategy for environmentally and socially sustainable development, has received little attention from researchers and practitioners in developing countries such as China, even though the dialogue strategy can potentially lead public governance to a more efficient level. This paper first discusses the potential of stakeholder dialogue as an institutional tool for promoting sustainable development in China, and then presents a pilot program of stakeholder dialogue recently developed in China -- the community environmental roundtables. Community leaders organize roundtable dialogues where representatives from government agencies, companies and the local residents exchange their views toward certain environmental issues they are facing and discuss possible ways to resolve the issues. Informal agreements are reached during the dialogues and implemented after them. This community roundtable dialogue strategy has been piloted in dozens of Chinese municipalities, addressing various environmental issues. A survey of dialogue participants shows that significant impacts have been generated on environmental protection, community management, as well as social and institutional development at the community level. Mutual understanding and trust among the government, companies, and local citizens are enhanced, environmental and social conflicts are reduced, and the public performance of various parties has been improved. This approach is expected to help solve other conflicts and public governance issues in China as well. The potential challenges of institutionalizing such a program in China are also discussed in the paper.Environmental Economics&Policies,National Governance,Governance Indicators,Parliamentary Government,Civil Society

ICTs and Family Physicians Human Capital Upgrading.Delightful Chimera or Harsh Reality?

In the present paper we provide a quantitative assessment of ICTs role in Family Physicians/General Practitioners (GPs) medical daily practice and scientific performance. It focus on the Portuguese underexplored context, where the Health Sector has been under pressure for wide and profound reforms. These reforms have been extensively relying on ICTs, namely on the Internet. Based on the responses of 342 GPs, we concluded that 94% uses the Internet and 57% agrees that the Internet is essential to their medical daily practice. This is a slightly lower percentage than that observed for other European physicians (62%). GPs tend to use the Internet mainly for professional purposes. On average, they spend 10 hours/week on the Internet for professional purposes. Further data shows that to have or to be enrolled in advanced training fosters the use of the Internet for professional purposes, which in its turn, tends to grant GPs access to more and up-to-date information and knowledge on these matters. A worrisome evidence is that at the workplace, a substantial proportion of GPs (over 70%) do not use the Internet or other related ICTs, namely Telemedicine. Although Electronic Prescription is used by roughly 60% of the respondent GPs, for all other activities – teleconsultation, telediagnosis, and telemonitoring – only a meagre percentage of physicians (10%) claim to use such technologies. Thus, Telemedicine at the workplace is still a chimera. Notwithstanding such dishearten scenario, our data shows that the Internet for the respondent GPs has a critical role on updating and improving their professional knowledge basis. They recognise, however, that the vast majority of GPs lack specific and general training in ICT-related technologies. In fact, half of them agree that they need to attend specific training actions on ICTs. A large percentage of GPs admitted that in the previous year they did not take any professional training targeting ICTs and those who did undertook rather short-term (less than one week) courses: Because of that, such training handicap uncovers that a large part of Portuguese GPs may be unable to reap the benefits of ICTs in their daily medical practice.GPs; Human Capital; Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)

Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communication Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact

The focus of this paper is on improving governance through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the delivery of services to the poor, i.e., improving efficiency, accountability, and transparency, and reducing bribery. A number of papers recognize the potential benefits but they also point out that it has not been easy to harness this potential. This paper presents an analysis of effective case studies from developing countries where the benefits have reached a large number of poor citizens. It also identifies the critical success factors for wide-scale deployment. The paper includes cases on the use of ICTs in the management of delivery of public services in health, education, and provision of subsidized food. Cases on electronic delivery of government services, such as providing certificates and licenses to rural populations, which in turn provide entitlements to the poor for subsidized food, fertilizer, and health services are also included. ICT-enabled provision of information to enhance rural income is also covered