A Critical Analysis of EU-Funded eParticipation

Predicting Citizens Acceptance of Government-led e-Participation Initiatives through Social Media: A Theoretical Model

“…In fact, e-Participation is far more than simply introducing new technologies [36,42,55], and citizens' personal and social acceptance to be involved in e-Participation activities appear as crucial factors [19,24,36,42]. There is some evidence that the availability of sophisticated e-Participation tools, which demands high technical skills from citizens significantly reduces citizens ability and willingness to participate [34,37,51,61]. Another evidence is that the use of weak communication means to reach and to interact with citizens in e-Participation projects also reduces citizens ability and willingness to participate [34,51].…”

“…There is some evidence that the availability of sophisticated e-Participation tools, which demands high technical skills from citizens significantly reduces citizens ability and willingness to participate [34,37,51,61]. Another evidence is that the use of weak communication means to reach and to interact with citizens in e-Participation projects also reduces citizens ability and willingness to participate [34,51]. However, technological factors were not the only barriers; since other non-technical factors -e.g.…”

Electronic Participation with a Special Reference to Social Media - A Literature Review

“…Recent studies identified the existence of around 255 e-Participation initiatives from 23 European countries [27,28], 53 of which have been funded with over 120 million Euros by the European Union between 1990 and 2010 [31]. Despite the high costs and great interest, findings show that the majority of them generated low citizens participation [29], and that they were mainly focused on information provision [13,27].…”

“…Overall, European e-Participation initiatives apparently failed to meet expectations [8,29,30] particularly in reaching and sustaining wider audiences, as well as in increasing their participation [8]. While the success of e-Participation may depend on understanding citizens' needs [9], European e-Participation projects are giving more attention towards delivering technical digital solutions than to the understanding the needs of citizens [30].…”

“…While the success of e-Participation may depend on understanding citizens' needs [9], European e-Participation projects are giving more attention towards delivering technical digital solutions than to the understanding the needs of citizens [30]. Furthermore, the highly sophisticated e-Participation tools and the weak communication means that were used to reach and to interact with citizens in such projects appear as other reasons for the low level of engagement achieved [11,29]. An evaluation study of various e-Participation project has found a positive impact between providing citizens with attractive and easy-to-use e-Participation tools and their participation rate [41].…”