Information Polity

Meijer, Albert; Webster, William

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-190001

Schedler, Kuno; Guenduez, Ali Asker; Frischknecht, Ruth

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-180095

Smart information and communication technologies (ICTs) are finding their ways into public administration, and numerous smart government efforts are marking the start of a new digitalization wave in the public sector. Despite being in the early stages of development, these initiatives promise a new model for the provision of public services: smart government. Because past technical innovations in the public sector did not reach their full potential, it is crucial to know the difficulties if one is to successfully address them. We explore the perceived barriers to the adoption of smart government in an early phase of implementation. We analyzed barriers, utilizing 32 interviews with actors involved in smart government initiatives. Cluster analysis helped us to identify six barrier groups: a lack of legitimacy, a lack of legal foundations, a lack of policy coherence, a lack of technical infrastructure, cost-benefit considerations, and a lack of innovation capacity. We distinguish between organizational and institutional barriers, and discuss restrictions and implications for praxis and future research.

Jäske, Maija; Ertiö, Titiana

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-180105

Recently, digital democratic applications have increased in presence and scope. This study clarifies how civic applications – bottom-up technologies that use open data to solve governance and policy challenges – can contribute to democratic governance. While civic applications claim to deepen democracy, systematic frameworks for assessing the democratic potential of civic apps are missing, because apps are often evaluated against technical criteria. This study introduces a framework for evaluating the democratic potential of civic apps, distinguishing six criteria: inclusiveness, deliberation, influence, publicity, mobilization, and knowledge production. The framework is applied to a case study of the Finnish DataDemo competition in 2014 by analyzing the institutional design features of six civic applications. It is argued that in terms of democratic governance, the greatest potential of civic apps lies in enhancing publicity and mobilization, while they should not be expected to increase inclusiveness or direct influence in decisions. Thus, our study contributes to understanding how civic applications can improve democracy in times of open data abundance.

Lioy, Alberto; Del Valle, Marc Esteve; Gottlieb, Julian

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-180093

This article examines the interaction of organisational and technological changes adopted by parties to respond to members’ demands for more participation. We develop a term, platform politics, and create a framework for identifying how parties use platforms to open or close intra-party decision-making. The framework is then applied to two institutionalised parties (PSOE and PD) and to two movement-based parties (Podemos and M5S) of the changing party systems of Spain and Italy. We conclude that the tensions between existing organisational structures and the use of internet-based platforms create a series of unintended consequences for parties, which result in potentially disruptive outcomes.

Wang, Victoria; Shepherd, David; Button, Mark

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-180107

This paper explores some of the key barriers to Open Government Data (OGD) that responsible civil servants in the UK face as they try to comply with the UK-led OGD initiative. Empirically, we provide a quantitative analysis of the resources published on the government’s central OGD portal, data.gov.uk, and a unique insight into the publishing of OGD in the UK based on 22 interviews with responsible individuals at the operational level of publishing OGD. Our findings reveal that while the barriers to open government information have been substantially reduced, the barriers to open government data persist. Even the most enthusiastic responsible individuals face considerable obstacles in publishing OGD. Further, a key barrier to OGD in the UK is its impression management strategy based on its informational rather than data orientation. Due to the UK’s pioneering position in the OGD initiative, these findings are relevant to understanding and improving OGD programmes at local, national and international levels. The findings may subsequently lead to evidence-based strategies and policies.

Hunady, Jan

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-180086

It is obvious that the Internet connection brings several unquestionable benefits to people and society. However, not all of them can be seen at first sight. This study examines the potential effect of Internet usage on corruption awareness as well as experience with corruption and actual reporting of corruption cases. We conducted mainly IV probit and 2SLS regression based on the data from the Eurobarometer survey. We have found that intensity of Internet usage seems to be a significant factor affecting respondents’ knowledge about where to report the corruption. Internet usage appears to have a positive effect on the accuracy of corruption extent estimation in a country. Moreover, our results strongly suggest that those using the Internet frequently are more likely to report experiences of corruption. In line with this result, promoting of Internet usage and enabling Internet access can be seen as a potential anti-corruption tool. Our findings have several important implications for anti-corruption and bribery policies. Due to the fact that the initial installation cost proves to be the essential problem, the effective strategy should also include the subsidies for Internet access.

Zhao, Fang; Naidu, Suwastika; Wallis, Joseph

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-180087

This study seeks to improve the current understanding of e-government adoption by taking a novel approach. Drawing on the social cognitive theory and its triadic reciprocal model, we developed and tested a new research model in the context of e-government adoption in the United Arab Emirates. The overall findings suggest that e-government adoption is influenced by the reciprocal interactions of personal, behavioural, and environmental factors. The findings imply that when formulating e-government strategy, policy makers need to address in a holistic and integrative way the issue of e-government environment and its alignment with citizens’ Internet use preferences and personal factors. This study opens a new lens for e-government adoption research and offers practical value for governments to develop effective e-government strategy.

2019 Information Polity

doi: 10.3233/IP-190002