Does Citizen Involvement Feed on Digital Platforms?

ABSTRACT

Citizens’ demand for engagement and participation in the public administration is one area of concern for research and practice. Most recently, the essential role of e-participation tools in enabling the provision of information fostering citizen participation is recognised. The CONSUL application, used by 100 institutions, is the most widespread ICT tool in the world used to enable the active participation. Through systematic combining approach, based on an abductive process, the study analyses the case of Madrid (Spain) with the aim of contributing to the theory of the participatory platform on participation, accountability, and transparency. Even though overall citizen participation is still far away, the results of the study revealed focus areas with implication for research and practice. The study demonstrates that socio-demographic variables and support given by accessible financial and non-financial information must underpin future developments in e-participation and participatory governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizen participation
• e-participatory
• participatory technology assessment
• consul
• madrid

Acknowledgments

The research team would like to thank the Italian Innovation Minister Prof. Paola Pisano for the collaboration and the data provided. Special thanks also to Prof. Alireza Ahmadsimab of the HEC Montréal University (Canada) for the valuable advice received during the revision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).