JeDEM - eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government

Editorial 15(1)

2023-09-15T04:38:30-07:00

Examining the Impact of Transparency Portals on Media Coverage

2023-03-20T02:56:02-07:00

This study examined the use of data from a transparency portal in media coverage of a high-profile case of alleged public procurement irregularities in Spain. Access to Twitter API was used to identify relevant URLs related to this issue. It was found that direct links to a portal were of low relevance, and most of the linked documents did not even mention the availability of data from a portal. Qualitative analysis revealed that the most frequent topics were the use of portal data as an authoritative argument to endorse information, the statement that the portal did not contain sufficient information for journalistic purposes, and the absence of data on third parties involved in public procurement. It is recommended that governments promote the existence of Portals and make media outlets aware that providing links to original data is beneficial for their reporting. In addition, linked open data should be used to ensure accuracy and transparency.

Casual Social Media Use among the Youth: Effects on Online and Offline Political Participation

2022-10-03T01:39:25-07:00

Previous studies suggest that social media use among the youth is correlated with online and offline political participation. There is also a mixed and inconclusive debate on whether online political participation in the youth increases offline political participation. This study uses three models of OLS, two-way fixed effects, and an instrumental variable approach to make causal inferences about the social media use and online and offline political participation of the youth. The analyses provide evidence of a significant effect of casual social media use on online political participation and no effect or negligible effect on offline political activity and voting behavior. The results from fixed effects and instrumental variable models provide strong evidence of elasticity between online political participation and offline political activity in young individuals. On average, a one percent increase in online political participation increases the offline political activity index by 0.12 percent.

Understanding the Intention to Use LAPOR Application as e-Democracy in Indonesia: An Integrating ECM and UTAUT Perspective

2023-03-20T03:00:02-07:00

The development of ICT enables citizen involvement in the decision-making process and two-way communication between democratic actors in the political sphere through digital e-democracy platforms. Unfortunately, implementing digital platforms faces severe problems on the adoption side. A literature review shows that developing countries are research locations that have been widely studied in recent years, and specific theoretical models were used to explain the critical factors that influence user acceptance of e-democracy. This study investigates the critical factors influencing the adoption of e-democracy to fill the research gap. The conceptual model is proposed by integrating the ECM into UTAUT. A cross-sectional survey was designed and employed to test the conceptual model. Tests were carried out on 355 data samples using SmartPLS software. The PLS algorithm testing and the bootstrapping procedure were carried out. The results found that satisfaction, perceived usefulness, effort expectancy, and facilitation conditions directly influence the intention to use e-democracy. At the same time, social influences do not significantly affect the intention to use e-democracy. In addition, perceived usefulness, facilitation conditions, and expectancy confirmation positively influence user satisfaction. Expectancy confirmation positively influences perceived usefulness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Consequently, some policy recommendations need to be adopted by the Indonesian government to improve the quality of e-democracy.

Internet Voting for Policy Proposals: Amplifying Open Government in Chile and Colombia

2023-03-20T03:05:39-07:00

This paper investigates the impact of internet voting for draft policy proposals in the framework of Open Government Partnership, on the whole ecosystem of open government in Chile and Colombia. The research objective is, to identify the impact of i-voting for policy proposals on voters, civil society organizations, government authorities and open government overall, taking into account public transparency, civic participation and public accountability. Methodologically, this international comparison of case studies has employed a mixed methods approach including the analysis of applied reports, legislation, social media and expert interviews. It was found that in Chile and Colombia, the i-voting for policy proposals helped bridge remote parts of the countries and thus, make democratic participation more inclusive. Ultimately, the non-binding consultative i-voting for draft open government policies in both countries empowered civil society, working in the open government domain to advocate sectoral policies to be introduced by the government.

Open Government Data Programs and Information Privacy Concerns: A Literature Review

2023-03-09T00:09:14-08:00

This study presents a narrative review of the literature on privacy concerns of Open Government Data (OGD) programs and identifies suggested technical, procedural, and legal remedies. Peer-reviewed articles were identified and analysed from major bibliographic databases, including Web of Science, Digital ACM Library, IEEE Explore Digital Library, and Science Direct. Included articles focus on identifying individual information privacy concerns from the viewpoint of OGD stakeholders or providing solutions for mitigating concerns and risks. Papers that discussed and focused on general privacy issues or privacy concerns of open data in general or open science privacy concerns were excluded. Three streams of research were identified: 1) exploring privacy concerns and balance with OGD value propositions, 2) proposing solutions for mitigating privacy concerns, and 3) developing risk-based frameworks for the OGD program at different governmental levels. Findings suggest that contradictions with Fair Information Practices, reidentification risks, conflicts with OGD value propositions, and smart city data practices are significant privacy concerns in the literature. Proposed solutions include technical, legal, and procedural measures to mitigate privacy concerns. Building on the findings, practical implications and suggested future research directions are provided.

Implementing e-procurement at the Zimbabwe’s National Pharmaceutical Company (NatPharm): Challenges and Prospects

2022-11-07T02:26:18-08:00

This study explores the challenges and benefits of adopting electronic procurement (e-procurement) technologies to facilitate anti-corruption mechanisms, accountability and transparency in the procurement of pharmaceuticals at the National Pharmaceutical (NatPharm) Company in Zimbabwe. Pharmaceutical corruption is a serious threat to the attainment of Universal Health Coverage. It is imperative for the Government of Zimbabwe to adopt Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to detect and prevent corruption and fraud, thereby, addressing leakages, mismanagement and theft of medicines, thereby, improving population health outcomes. The study used a qualitative exploratory case study approach and data was gathered through documentary review. The study findings reveal that, pharmaceutical procurement is highly vulnerable to corruption at NatPharm. Bid rigging, procurement-related corruption, bribery and nepotism characterise pharmaceutical procurement at NatPharm. The study recommends the adoption of a transparent e-procurement system with open contracting and integrity pacts to reduce corruption, increase transparency and accountability at NatPharm.

Application of business process modelling and reengineering to law making process in Poland

2022-10-03T01:49:49-07:00

Effectiveness of services provided by the governmental institutions is determined by the quality of established law. The number of the adopted regulations is increasing but their quality is going down. Improvement of existing legislation is a time-consuming and difficult task. We propose to apply techniques of business process modeling and reengineering to im-prove quality of law in the course of law-making. The main contribution of the article is a me-thod based on application of Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) to design processes introduced by the legal acts. Due to application of this method, processes regulated by legisla-tions could be failure-free and effective. This method permits to indicate how proposed amend-ments affect the regulated processes. The method was practically implemented and validated during process of law-making in Poland. This case empirically confirmed that application of our method could enhance the quality of public processes regulated by legislation.

Democratising Democracy: Votes-Weighted Representation

2023-03-20T02:46:06-07:00

Democracy is in retreat around the world. To reduce the UK’s own democratic deficit, support is growing for some kind of proportional representation. We propose that existing versions of PR can be greatly simplified and improved on by giving each representative voting power in the assembly proportional to the number of votes they have been given by the electorate: “Votes-Weighted Representation”. Under VWR a country/region is divided into multi-member constituencies. Each voter has a single vote. Ballot papers list the candidates (each party can field several), whom voters then rank. The candidate with the fewest votes (top preferences) is eliminated, and their votes are transferred to next preferences, repeating until the number of candidates remaining equals the number to elect. Optionally, given sufficiently secure and accessible voting software, every voter can also have a 'dynamic' second vote, which they can arbitrarily split and delegate to any representatives from any constituencies, for however long and on whichever issues they wish; delegated votes are added to representatives’ vote weights. Any voter can override the delegation of their second vote on any issue, and remotely vote on it in the assembly themselves, directly. Compared with existing systems, these proposals will allow more accountable, more responsive and finer-grained coverage of the inherently multi-dimensional political space, including between elections. Fewer votes will be wasted, and better proportionality of voting power in the assembly should be achievable than under comparable Single Transferable Vote (STV) and highest averages or highest remainders methods for apportioning representatives. Also, fewer votes will be wasted compared with using electoral thresholds without vote transfers from eliminated candidates. Political fragmentation should be largely avoidable by using 6- or 7-member constituencies, without unduly compromising proportionality for bigger parties, or the diversity of elected representatives. Our proposals should help democratise democracy, improve its functioning, and reverse its global retreat.

Defining Transparency: A Functional Approach

2022-08-25T00:31:15-07:00

Transparency is a fuzzy concept within the governance literature; it is commonly linked, through blurry categorisations, to other concepts in the political science and public administration scholarship, such as accountability and corruption. This reflection piece seeks to tackle this blurriness and advance the concept’s analytical precision by presenting and discussing transparency’s main dimensions, as well as its framing within the scholarly body of good governance, democracy, and development. To do so, the reflection paper presents a novel approach; to define transparency in the form of a function (which places transparency in relation to, and as a function) of its two constituting dimensions: a) information (timely and qualitative), and b) accountability mechanisms (namely, a free media environment and legitimate accountability channels). Reviewing a sample of relevant and influential works in the broad field of transparency, these two dimensions are analysed highlighting the common analytical factors found in the scholarship, pointing towards potential applications of the novel functional approach framework. The focus is placed on the distinct institutional and contextual levels, addressing the various analytical determinants of transparency. In doing so, the reflection presents and discusses some prospective research hypotheses, marking the road for future theoretical and empirical research, as well as policy implications.