Big Data and Public Policy: Can It Succeed Where E‐Participation Has Failed?

Abstract

This editorial introduces a special issue resulting from a panel on Internet and policy organized by the Oxford Internet Institute (University of Oxford) at the 2015 International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP) held in Milan. Two main themes emerged from the panel: the challenges of high cost and low participation which many e‐participation initiatives have faced; and the potential Big Data seems to hold for remedying these problems. This introduction briefly presents these themes and links them to the papers in the issue. It argues that Big Data can fix some of the problems typically encountered by e‐participation initiatives: it can offer a solution to the problem of low turnout which is furthermore accessible to government bodies even if they have low levels of financial resources. However, the use of Big Data in this way is also a radically different approach to the problem of involving citizens in policymaking; and the editorial concludes by reflecting on the significance of this for the policymaking process.

La gobernanza inteligente de las metrópolis y la participación ciudadana

“…Los presupuestos participativos mejoran la comunicación de la Administración con el ciudadano y proporciona un canal de participación (De Blasio & Selva, 2016). Por el contrario, pueden generar clientelismo y un pobre entorno de decisión creando una visión distorsionada de las posibilidades que ofrecen la confluencia de tecnología y democracia en términos de participación (Bright & Margetts, 2016). Manfredi Sánchez y Calvo Rubio (2019) concluyen que estos procesos pueden tener dudosa representatividad por la baja acogida de los ciudadanos y la fuerza que adquieren en estos procesos los grupos organizados (grupos de presión de muy diversas características y representatividad).…”

Explaining download patterns in open government data: citizen participation or private enterprise

“…The idea of opening government data up in some way is one of the most important current trends in public administration, with over 100 examples of "Open Government Data" [OGD] projects around the world (Davies, 2012). Indeed, a commitment to open data now often forms part of wider program of government modernization under recent moves towards "digital era governance" (Margetts & Dunleavy, 2013;Bright & Margetts, 2016).…”

Estimating the outcome of UKs referendum on EU membership using e-petition data and machine learning algorithms

“…The question then arises as to how representative these interactions are? Ideally the conduct of a statistically sound opinion survey would provide a more objective measure of local views; however, in the era of big data thoughts turn to how alternative data can inform politicians about important issues (Bright & Margetts, 2016;Karpf, 2016b). One such source of data are signatories to electronic petitions (e-petitions) (Karpf, 2016a).…”