E-Consultation, Local Government and the OECD Scale of Participation: Achieving Active Participation?

Abstract

In recent years the Internet has attracted a great deal of attention regarding its potential to rejuvenate the relationship between politicians and citizens. This thesis addresses one component of internet-based communication; econsultation, in order to assess its potential to improve government-citizen relations in representative democracy. E-consultation is part of the larger subset of E-participation, but to date, has not attracted the same amount of academic attention as other areas such as E-government. Three case studies were conducted in conjunction with a review of the literature in order to assess the factors required to achieve effective consultation, and a critical assessment of if, when in place, these programmes allow the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Criteria of Active Participation to be achieved. The three case studies share similar socio-political values; meaning that cross-comparisons could be made in a way that other studies have struggled to do. The findings of this research are two-fold, and indicate that this is still very much a developing area of literature and one which needs to be explored further.