Conditions of E-Democracy
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RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN Conditions of E-democracy Introducing configurational analysis in the study of e-democracy S. Kuijpers ABSTRACT: This paper introduces configurational analysis in the study of e-democracy through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. On the basis of an inquiry into Dutch local e-democracy, it is shown that the relationships indicated by standard correlational analysis can be understood more thoroughly by means of this new approach. Conditions taken into account are policy competition/learning, municipality size, political color of the government, citizen pressure and electoral turnout. While none of these conditions are necessary to explain e-democratic development, combined they can amount to a sufficient explanation in some cases. In contrast, municipality size and a low turnout are necessary conditions for explaining a lack of digital democratic development. In conclusion, it is noted that the e-democracy literature advances by letting go of simplifying causal assumptions and exploring causal complexity. With special thanks to: Renata Heezemans Fiet Kuijpers Mirko Jouamer Sjors Heezemans Anne Lommers Melvin Adjiembaks Jelle Lössbroek Masterthesis Comparative and European Politics Radboud University Nijmegen Author: S. Kuijpers Student number: 0720704 Under the guidance of dr. K. T. E. Jacobs Date: August 9th 2013 Wordcount:31,824 2 Table of contents 1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Basic Concepts ................................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1.1 Democracy ................................................................................................................................................. 7 1.1.2 E-democracy: The Internet, the Web, and Web 2.0 ..................................................................................... 8 2.0 Previous Research and Theory ............................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Defining E-democracy ........................................................................................................................................ 9 2.1.1 The difference with e-government.............................................................................................................. 9 2.1.2 E-democracy and Web 2.0 ........................................................................................................................ 10 2.1.3 E-democracy: a conceptual definition ....................................................................................................... 11 2.2 Explaining E-democratic Development ............................................................................................................. 11 2.2.1 Other perspectives ................................................................................................................................... 12 2.2.2 The social constructivist perspective ......................................................................................................... 13 2.2.3 E-democracy and democratization ............................................................................................................ 14 2.3 Application and Hypotheses ............................................................................................................................ 15 2.3.1 Policy diffusion ......................................................................................................................................... 16 2.3.2 Citizen pressure ........................................................................................................................................ 17 2.3.3 Electoral turnout ...................................................................................................................................... 17 2.3.4 Political color of the municipal government .............................................................................................. 18 2.3.5 Municipality size ....................................................................................................................................... 18 3.0 Method and Measurement .................................................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Method: Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis ....................................................................................... 20 3.1.1 General advantages of fsQCA .................................................................................................................... 20 3.1.2 The advantages of fsQCA for this inquiry .................................................................................................. 21 3.2 Measurement: Operationalization and Data Collection .................................................................................... 22 3.2.1 Measuring e-democratic development ..................................................................................................... 22 3.2.2 Measuring the conditions ......................................................................................................................... 24 3.2.3 Case Selection .......................................................................................................................................... 25 3.3 Calibration ...................................................................................................................................................... 26 4.0 Analysis ............................................................................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Analysis of E-democratic Development ............................................................................................................ 28 4.2.1 Necessary conditions for e-democratic development ................................................................................ 28 4.2.2 Sufficient configurations for e-democratic development ........................................................................... 29 4.3 Analysis of E-democratic Underdevelopment ................................................................................................... 30 4.3.2 Necessary conditions for e-democratic underdevelopment ...................................................................... 30 3 4.3.2 Sufficient configurations for e-democratic underdevelopment ................................................................. 31 4.3.3 Summary .................................................................................................................................................. 31 4.4 Interpretation of the Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 33 4.4.1 Making sense of e-democratic development ............................................................................................. 33 4.4.2 Making sense of e-democratic underdevelopment ................................................................................... 34 4.4.3 Comparative Analysis................................................................................................................................ 35 5.0 Conclusion and Discussion ................................................................................................................................... 36 5.0.1 Limitations ................................................................................................................................................ 37 Appendices ............................................................................................................................................................... 39 Appendix A Raw Data ............................................................................................................................................ 39 Appendix B: Measurement and Coding .................................................................................................................. 42 Appendix C: Membership Thresholds and Values ................................................................................................... 45 Appendix D: Truth Tables and Robustness Tests..................................................................................................... 53 Literature & Other Sources ....................................................................................................................................... 59 4 1.0 Introduction Increasingly, citizens in representative democracies seem to be turning away from the institutions once taken to represent their interests (Hibbing & Theiss Morse, 2002; Schmitter, 2011). For example, research shows a growing gap between political parties and their constituents, evidenced by developments such as rising voter volatility and decreased citizen campaign activity (Dalton, MacAllister & Wattenberg, 2000). In an attempt to regain the trust of citizens, governments are increasingly experimenting with direct democratic or deliberative experiments (Scarrow, 2001; Fahy et al., 2012). At the same time, internet technologies have been spreading around the globe, offering new opportunities