Hany Abdelghaffar and Lobna Sameer
they see important and citizens could get automatically notified with the updates making it more likely that they would read the updated information . Based on this , we posit the following hypothesis :
H1 : Information provision via social networks significantly influences the local government decision making .
3.2 Deliberations and consultations
The second and third factors in the proposed model are deliberations and consultations . Deliberation is the use of ICT for political discussions between citizens themselves which helps into making citizens more involved in the community and its problems as well as in forming the public opinion ( Dahlberg , 2001 ). Consultation is similar to deliberation ; however the government or other organizations takes an official role in the discussion over the internet . Deliberation is exercised by all the actors in the society and is not limited to a certain group of people . It is highly present through all the stages of changes presented by Williamson ( 2007 ) and it has a major rule in moving the society through the change stages .
The features of social networks would allow for deliberations . Social networks provide social interaction and collaborative abilities ( Murugesan , 2007 ). Users are not only able to read the contents on the social network , they are also able to write their comments ( breindl and Franq , 2008 ; Murugesan , 2007 ). Such interactivity enable citizens to collectively create and discuss content with each other ( Chadwick , 2008 ; Hull et all , 2001 ). By its nature , a social network gives citizens equal rights for freedom of speech where no one can force unwilling citizens to participate or twist their stated opinions ( Hull , et all , 2011 ). Deliberations and consultations would be conducted on separate forums and discussions boards created on the social network which would be conducted on the individual pages of the social network members . These deliberations and discussions are expected to come up naturally after citizens have been provided with information that they would feel the need to discuss it together , consequently we can say that deliberations are not contradicting with the governments ’ provision of information , but rather that information provision might lead the citizens into new deliberations
Citizens who are using social networks could get in touch with any other citizen , including public figures such as politicians ( Mislove et al , 2007 ; Pena‐Lopez , 2010 ). Even more , these public figures could get in touch with citizens and consult them in matters of importance . It is thought that , if citizens are willing to participate in deliberations over a social network , they are more likely to take part in consultations sponsored by the government . Hence , we hypothesize that :
H2 : Deliberation via social networks significantly influences the local government decision making .
H3 : Consultations via social networks significantly influences the local government decision making .
3.3 Communities building
Community building is concerned by the collaborative work of citizens to form a unified community that has a common set of interests and supports a shared goal ( Paivarinta and Sæbo , 2006 ). The government is usually better able to take decisions when it can easily assess the opinion of different groups they govern ( Irvin and Stansbury , 2004 ). Social networks allows for the creation of communities for people who already have common interests and goals ( Birdsall , 2007 ; Murugesan , 2007 ). Community building is essential before the action stage of social change towards e‐democracy . It is important that the community should be well organized and collaborated before starting action movements on ground .
Social networks especially is one of the most suited tools for community building as these tools allow for collaboration between users horizontally or as equals which eliminates any hierarchies that might inhibit the community creation process . Communications between the community members are done using different form such as text , audio , and video ( Birdsall , 2007 ). These features of social networks makes this research assumes that the use of a social network in e‐democracy would lead to forming of community or interest groups that have common interests and opinion . Hence , we hypothesize that :
H4 : Community building via social networks significantly influences the local government decision making .
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