Eirik Swensen for assistance in collecting information about websites, and two anonymous reviewers for very useful comments and suggestions. AbstractLocal governments' websites are important gateways for residents wishing to interact with public institutions online, and the establishment and development of such websites stand out among governmental initiatives to improve their performance. Drawing on domestication theory to apply a change-oriented perspective, the paper analyses how
Information and communications technologies (ICTs) prominently feature in the current wave of globalisation. Sceptics of globalisation suggest that the new technology will hamstring governments from acting in the interests of ordinary people and for furthering communitarian values, leading to demobilisation of reform movements and empowering powerful capitalistic elites. Others suggest that the new technologies will empower people at the expense of states, opening up public space for diversity of opinions and constraining the repressive tendencies of states and bureaucracies. Moreover, the new technologies may also allow mass dissent to mobilise more easily and hamstring the repressive power of states due to transparency and global audience costs. We address the issue by specifically assessing the effects of older technologies relative to new ones, controlling for time independently. We find very clear results suggesting that new ICTs, particularly access to the internet and mobile phones, are associated with better human rights, whereas access to televisions and fixed phone lines are associated with worse human rights. It seems that the new ICTs are qualitatively better for human rights than the old ones. Our results are robust to a host of different controls, testing methods and to the inclusion of time trends as a separate variable. The results taken together do not support pessimistic arguments about how new technologies can raise the level of dangerous dissent and provoke harsher human rights practices by governments.
Utviklingen innenfor informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi (IKT) har gitt opphav til en type etisk-politisk utfordring som gjerne kalles digital ulikhet. Tradisjonelt har det dreid seg om sosiale ulikheter i tilgangen til IKT på individnivå. Nyere forskning på området er mer opptatt av bruk og dermed av tilbudet av aktiviteter og tjenester gjennom Internett. I denne artikkelen ser vi på hvordan det kan oppstå geografisk digital ulikhet som følge av at norske kommuner tilbyr digitale tjenester – herunder informasjon og ressurser for lokalpolitisk deltakelse – i svært forskjellig omfang. Det betyr at kommunene står overfor etisk-politiske utfordringer knyttet til digital ulikhet som følge av deres strategier for bruk av hjemmesider, og for digital utvikling av kommunen mer generelt. Selv om det er få kommuner som tilbyr særlig mye når det gjelder lokalpolitisk deltakelse, er ulikhetene i tilbudet av informasjon og digitale tjenester betydelige. I tillegg bidrar velutviklede hjemmesider til å gjøre kommunen mer gjennomsiktig og lettere tilgjengelig, noe vi antar er en fordel for innbyggerne. Analysen er basert på en kvantitativt orientert innholdsanalyse av hjemmesidene til alle norske kommuner og en kvalitativ innholdsanalyse av hjemmesidene til ti norske kommuner.Nøkkelord: digital ulikhet, etisk-politiske utfordringer, kommuner, hjemmesider, digitale tjenesterEnglish summary: Norwegian local governments electronically out of step? From social to geographical digital dividesThe development of information and communication technologies (ICT) has raised a kind of ethical–political challenge usually referred to as a digital divide. Traditionally, this has fomented concerns about social inequalities with respect to individual access to ICT. More recent scholarship argues the need to be more focused on use rather than access; accordingly, also on the supply of activities and services through internet. In this article, we study how geographical digital divides may appear as a consequence of the fact that Norwegian local governments supply digital services – including information and resources for local political participation – to quite a different extent. This means that local governments face ethical–political challenges related to digital divides as a consequence of their strategies for the development of home pages and for digital development of local government services more generally. Even though only a few local governments offer much with regard to local political participation, the inequalities with respect to the supply of information and digital services are considerable. In addition, apparently, well–developed home pages make the local government more transparent and more accessible. We believe this to be of advantage to local citizens. The analysis is based on a quantitative content analysis of all Norwegian local governments and a qualitative content analysis of the home pages of 10 local governments.
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