Donald Norris and Christopher Reddick
do.” Although the survey instrument did not delve into the meaning, we suspect that doing the right thing is driven by both professional norms and a public service motivation.
Table 3: Local government engagement in e‐participation projects and activities( 2011 only)
Why does your local government engage in e‐participation projects and activities? Number Percent Demanded or required by local elected officials 236 43.3 Demanded or required by top administrators 238 43.8
Demanded by citizens 176 32.3 Demanded by local interest groups that have clout in the community 54 9.9
It is the right thing to do 449 82.5 To keep up with other local governments in our area or peer local governments elsewhere 179 32.9
Other 80 14.7
Slightly more than four in ten governments said that both top local administrators( 43.8 percent) and local elected officials( 43.3 percent) demanded e‐participation. About one third( 32.3 percent) said demand by local citizens.
Next we asked( in the 2011 survey only) whether these governments’ e‐participation projects were mostly one‐way from governments to citizens or mostly citizen to government( Table 4). The great majority of governments( 71.0 percent) said mostly one‐way, from government to citizens. Only 2.9 percent said mostly citizen to government, while about one‐quarter( 26.0 percent) said a combination of one‐ and two‐way.
Table 4: What best describes the extent to which your local government ' s e‐participation projects and activities today mostly involve communication from the local government to citizens or mostly involve communication from citizens to the local government?( 2011 only)
|
Number |
Percent |
Mostly government to citizen |
183 |
33.3 |
Somewhat government to citizen |
207 |
37.7 |
A mix of both, about half and half |
143 |
26.0 |
Somewhat citizen to government |
7 |
1.3 |
Mostly citizen to government |
9 |
1.6 |
To help understand why so few local governments had adopted e‐democracy, we asked about barriers to adoption( Table 5). The top four barriers, all of which were reported by greater than a majority of governments, were lack of funding( 83.5 percent – up eight percent from 2006); need to upgrade technology( 69.6 percent – up seven percent); lack of technology staff( 60.7 percent – down nearly three percent); and concerns about the digital divide( 55.7 percent – up nine percent). The second and third of these barriers are directly related to the first, funding.
The survey also asked about whether local elected officials and local administrators promoted e‐participation( Tables 6 and 7). Answers here could also be important to understanding why local governments have adopted so few e‐participation activities. We asked the respondents to answer based on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 meaning no promotion of e‐participation and 5 meaning active promotion. For ease of analysis, we collapsed responses 1 and 2 to mean little or no promotion, 3 to mean some promotion, and 4 and 5 to mean very active promotion.
Three in 10 respondents( 30.9 percent) to the 2011 survey said elected officials actively promoted e‐ participation( up 8.7 percent over 2006); a similar fraction( 31.1 percent) said that elected officials promoted it some( up 2.9 percent); and 38.0 percent said these officials did not support e‐participation( down 11.5 percent). More than four in 10 respondents( 43.6 percent, up 8.6 percent over 2006) said that appointed officials actively supported e‐participation; one‐third( 32.2 percent) promoted it some( up 3.2 percent); and one‐quarter( 24.1 percent) did not promote it( down 11.6 percent).
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