Part 3: ImplementationsInternational audienceThe paper presents the results of research on factors explaining the level of e-petitioning in Russian regions. The main goal is to reveal socio-economic, technological and institutional problems the regions face, and hence to embed the Russian case into the broad research agenda on online engagement. We concentrate on the federal e-petitions portal – Russian Public Initiative – and use the automated monitoring system to analyse subnational dynamics of online petitions submissions and voting on the aggregate level. The data are used to quantitatively assess the drivers and obstacles for e-participation. Our findings suggest that more active e-petition portal usage in regions is associated with higher socio-economic and technological development, as well as with democratic institutions and better e-government policy. One of the main obstacles to active use of the portal is its institutional design that at the moment provides regions with different opportunities and reinforces participation divides. Future steps, implications for automated monitoring system and some policy recommendations are also discussed

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The paper explores the patterns and factors of e-governance development in ineffective institutional settings. Although it is assumed that most of e-projects in such countries failed, we argue that in some contexts such initiatives can survive in the hostile environment and achieve relatively positive results, leading to limited institutional changes. We adapt the pockets of effectiveness framework in order to analyze the Our Petersburg portal (St. Petersburg, Russia). Our findings suggest that such electronic "pockets" may emerge as a deliberate policy of the political elite in an attempt to make institutions work properly. The key factors of such projects' success relate to agency, namely the political patronage and control, policy entrepreneurship, as well as organization autonomy and the power of the initiative.

Electronic governance has received much interest worldwide and a significant amount of attention and money is being put into making e-governance a reality. Proper assessment of e-governance projects gives us crucial information on the kinds of changes needed in order to make them successful.International ratings are extremely important in relation to comparing the achievements of different countries, analysing their experiences and making decisions about further development. On the other hand, a country's ranking position forms or adjusts the world's attitude toward this country.This article discusses the possible problem when a high position in such ranking becomes an aim in itself and determines the misdirection of e-Governance development -in this, the case we have chosen to study is Russia.

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