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E-democracy at the American grassroots: Not now … not likely?

Authors:

Donald F. Norris,

Christopher G. ReddickAuthors Info & Claims

Information Polity, Volume 18, Issue 3

Pages 201 - 216

Published: 01 July 2013 Publication History

Abstract

Using data from two national surveys conducted in 2006 and 2011, we empirically examine whether, and the extent to which, grassroots or local governments in the United States have adopted electronic democracy e-democracy. We contrast this empirical reality against the claims made by e-democracy advocates. The survey results show that few American local governments have adopted e-democracy, particularly meaningful elements through which citizens can actively participate in governmental activities, programs and decision-making. Even fewer local governments plan to do so in the near future. These empirical results are highly inconsistent with the claims of e-democracy advocates. Based on the survey results, we conclude that two important reasons account for the lack of e-democracy at the American grassroots: lack of funding to support e-democracy applications and lack of perceived demand for e-democracy. A third important factor may well be the fact that early predictions were, for various reasons, incorrect. Based on these findings, we would expect that e-democracy at the American grassroots will not be substantially different in the foreseeable future than it is now.

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Cited By

Hossain A(2023)E-Democracy in Bangladesh - A Framework for Crisis ManagementProceedings of the Central and Eastern European eDem and eGov Days 202310.1145/3603304.3612818(53-61)Online publication date: 13-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3603304.3612818
Schwoerer KRuijer EPiotrowski S(2022)Whose open data is it anyway? An exploratory study of open government data relevance and implications for democratic inclusionInformation Polity10.3233/IP-22000827:4(491-515)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.3233/IP-220008
Csáki C(2020)An Attempt to Build an eParticipation Program from Scratch: The Case of a District MunicipalityElectronic Participation10.1007/978-3-030-58141-1_1(3-14)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-58141-1_1
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cover image Information Polity

Information Polity Volume 18, Issue 3

July 2013

79 pages

ISSN:1570-1255

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IOS Press

Netherlands

Publication History

Published: 01 July 2013

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Cited By

Hossain A(2023)E-Democracy in Bangladesh - A Framework for Crisis ManagementProceedings of the Central and Eastern European eDem and eGov Days 202310.1145/3603304.3612818(53-61)Online publication date: 13-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3603304.3612818
Schwoerer KRuijer EPiotrowski S(2022)Whose open data is it anyway? An exploratory study of open government data relevance and implications for democratic inclusionInformation Polity10.3233/IP-22000827:4(491-515)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.3233/IP-220008
Csáki C(2020)An Attempt to Build an eParticipation Program from Scratch: The Case of a District MunicipalityElectronic Participation10.1007/978-3-030-58141-1_1(3-14)Online publication date: 31-Aug-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-030-58141-1_1
Coelho TCunha MPozzebon M(2017)eParticipation and the policy cycleProceedings of the 18th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research10.1145/3085228.3085277(368-376)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3085228.3085277
Puron-Cid G(2017)From Technology to Social DevelopmentProceedings of the 18th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research10.1145/3085228.3085272(336-345)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3085228.3085272

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