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Eparticipation in Europe: Current State and Practical Recommendations This is a pre-final version. The final paper is available at: Tambouris E., Macintosh A., Dalakiouridou E., Smith1 E., Panopoulou E., Tarabanis K. and Millard J. (2013) eParticipation in Europe: Current State and Practical Recommendations. In J. R. Gil-Garcia (Ed.): E-Government Success Around the World: Cases, Empirical Studies, and Practical Recommendations, IGI Global, USA, DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4173-0.ch017 eParticipation in Europe: Current State and Practical Recommendations Efthimios Tambouris1, Ann Macintosh2, Efpraxia Dalakiouridou1, Simon Smith2, Eleni Panopoulou1, Konstantinos Tarabanis1 and Jeremy Millard3 1University of Macedonia, Greece 2The University of Leeds, UK 3Danish Technological Institute, Denmark ABSTRACT During the past few years, information and communication technologies and especially the internet are increasingly used in a vast range of human activities, including citizens’ interaction with government. In this context, advanced technologies are also being used to more actively engage citizens in democratic processes, which is termed electronic participation (eParticipation). eParticipation has attracted considerable attention worldwide. In Europe, a large number of initiatives have been funded providing valuable lessons. The aim of this chapter is to map the current state of eParticipation in Europe and provide practical recommendations. More specifically, we first present the results of a review of policy documents in the European Union in order to understand how eParticipation fits into European policies. We then present an analytical framework to aid theoretical understanding of eParticipation, followed by the results of a European study on eParticipation initiatives. Based on all these, we propose a number of recommendations on eParticipation for policy makers, practitioners, evaluators and research funders. INTRODUCTION Governmental processes are not limited to citizen-related top-down government services but also include citizen involvement in decision-making processes. In this context, it can be argued that electronic participation (eParticipation) is an integral part of electronic government (eGovernment). Today, European Institutions are sensing an increased demand by all sections of society for participation in EU level decisions as they realise that some citizens feel alienated from policy making and that the type and strength of citizen involvement in legislative processes is far from desirable. There are a number of specific Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) which can contribute to the inclusion of citizens in decision-making processes, in co- shaping the public services they receive or in public debate that prefigures formal decision making and service design. This is the context for the current interest in eParticipation. The proliferation of eParticipation offerings during the past years as well the variety of forms in which eParticipation manifests itself, require a solid conceptual and empirical understanding to provide a foundation for future endeavours. eParticipation evolved by evangelising the reconnection of citizens to policy, claiming to reduce the complexity of decision making and legislative processes, contribute to better legislation, broaden citizen participation in decision making and advance transparency so as to reduce the perceived democratic deficit. A significant number of national and regional authorities of the EU Member States as well as civil society have undertaken actions in these areas. However, these are not being systematically mapped, and even those which are have not yet been analyzed for their potential impact at the European level, or for developing good practice and policy for wider dissemination. Although assumed, it has not yet been demonstrated how these activities could be used and operationalized for positive contributions to achieving the Digital Agenda 2020 goals and the renewed goals of the Europe 2020 strategy. This is a pre-final version. The final paper is available at: Tambouris E., Macintosh A., Dalakiouridou E., Smith2 E., Panopoulou E., Tarabanis K. and Millard J. (2013) eParticipation in Europe: Current State and Practical Recommendations. In J. R. Gil-Garcia (Ed.): E-Government Success Around the World: Cases, Empirical Studies, and Practical Recommendations, IGI Global, USA, DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4173-0.ch017 The overall objective of this chapter is to provide a synoptic but coherent overview of the current state of European eParticipation in order to produce recommendations which can assist policy-makers to harness the benefits of ICT for better legislation and better decision-making at all levels of government, and for enhanced public participation in such processes. More specific objectives include: • To identify and study European Union eParticipation policies and conceptualize how eParticipation is perceived by European Institutions. • To construct a framework for analysing eParticipation initiatives. The framework identifies the key variables of eParticipation and serves as a conceptual-analytical tool for understanding eParticipation offerings and settings. • To survey European eParticipation initiatives in order to map the current state of play • To derive a set of recommendations on the use of eParticipation. The chapter is organized as follows. We start by presenting a brief background of eParticipation and explaining the motivation for this study. Then we present the main contribution of the chapter which refers to eParticipation in Europe. More specifically, this includes the methods employed, an outline of relevant policy documents, the theoretical foundation of the study, the results of a survey on eParticipation initiatives and relevant guidelines and recommendations. Finally, future research directions are presented before concluding. BACKGROUND There is a widespread sense that the public has disengaged from formal political processes, such as voting, joining parties and following political news (Hay 2007, Stoker 2006). This growing apathy to formal politics not only does nothing to change current political policies but is also at risk of undermining our current model of representative democracy. When that representation is through representatives elected by a minority of the electorate, this brings into question the legitimacy of political decision-making. In a number of European countries where voting is not obligatory there has been a growing decline in the number of people willing to turn out and vote in European level elections. The European Parliament was directly elected for the first time in 1979 with ten member states and at each election since then (every five years) the overall voter turnout has fallen. The turnout in the 2009 elections, with 27 member states, was only 43%. Many experts (e.g. Dryzak 2000, Fishkin 1991) see active citizen participation as a vital part of a thriving democracy as well as being necessary for the successful transformation of modern societies. Researchers have stressed the widespread potential of the internet and other digital technologies to broaden and deepen the democratic process, making it more transparent, inclusive and accessible (e.g. Dutton 1992, Blumer & Gurevitch 2001, Dahlgren 2005). However, only relatively recently has there been sufficient application of ICT to support democracy so that this potential could be considered within a real-world context (Weber et al, 2003). ICT offers new channels and processes for participation, a potentially more inclusive involvement of citizens in the decision making process, and the ability to compensate for certain democratic deficits. It can also lead to better legislation, to changes in the way both Parliaments in EU Member States and the European Parliament in Brussels interact with European citizens, and can produce new tools for democratic participation. It is, perhaps, not surprising that the European Parliament and the European Commission are attempting to provide an effective channel between themselves and civil society using ICT to deliver a more open and transparent democratic decision-making process. The generic term ‘eDemocracy’ (sometimes called digital democracy, cyberdemocracy and teledemocracy) captures both the intent to support democracy and studies of outcomes and context. Hacker and van Dijk (2000) describe the early emergence of the concept. eDemocracy is concerned with the use of ICT to engage citizens, support the democratic decision-making processes and strengthen representative democracy. Previous work (Macintosh 2004) usefully considered two components to eDemocracy: addressing the electoral process, This is a pre-final version. The final paper is available at: Tambouris E., Macintosh A., Dalakiouridou E., Smith3 E., Panopoulou E., Tarabanis K. and Millard J. (2013) eParticipation in Europe: Current State and Practical Recommendations. In J. R. Gil-Garcia (Ed.): E-Government Success Around the World: Cases, Empirical Studies, and Practical Recommendations, IGI Global, USA, DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-4173-0.ch017 including e-voting, and addressing citizen eParticipation in democratic decision-making. This in turn provides a more detailed definition of eParticipation, as the use of ICT to support information provision and “top-down” engagement i.e. government-led initiatives, or “ground-up” efforts to empower citizens, civil society organizations and other democratically constituted groups to gain the support of their elected representatives. Effective information provision is often
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