Institutional Diffusion of eParticipation in the English Local Government: Is Central Policy the Way Forward?

Abstract

Opportunities to examine how policy shapes eParticipation have so far been limited. This study assesses the requirement for local government authorities in England to have provided an online petitioning facility by the end of 2010. Based on an analysis of 353 web sites, the findings show that the impact of this policy was ambiguous: compliance was achieved, but most systems were only basically implemented and attracted limited use. Institutional variables were very influential in this outcome.

Keywords:

• online petitions
• e-petitions
• local government democracy
• web content analysis
• policy assessment
• institutional factors
• eParticipation adoption
• policy diffusion
• e-government
• digital governance
• England
• UK

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge Fraser Henderson and ParticiTech for financially supporting this study. Fraser Henderson and Peter Cruickshank are further acknowledged for providing useful suggestions on the coding framework and the study findings. Special thanks go to our coding team: Harry Bath-Barranco, Arthur Faulkner, Hubert Andrzejczyk, Maria Deli, and George Xydopoulos. An initial version of this article was presented at the 3rd IFIP 8.5 International Conference on eParticipation, Delft, Netherlands, September 2011 (Panagiotopoulos, Moody, & Elliman, 2011).

Notes

1. However, sufficient warning and guidance had been provided at least a year in advance (Communities and Local Government, 2009).

2. The official guidance on implementing the duty implied that a considerable increase in the number of petitions was not likely (Communities and Local Government, 2009).