The decline of trust in government contributes to a climate of "political malaise," and leads to great challenges for any government concerned with meeting the public's demands and expectations. Starting from the premise that e-government and e-participation are desirable developments initiated by governments via a top-down approach, this paper explores the opportunities, if any, available to citizens to utilize the internet to initiate bottom-up channels of participation and communication. We explore the extent to which the time that people spend on the internet affects the public's trust in the government and/or the degree of compliance with government policies, as compared to the influence of the traditional, offline, mass media modalities, such as newspapers. The results of the analyses suggest that the more time individuals spend on the internet, the lower their degree of trust in government and lower level of citizen compliance.

No abstract

Vaccine hesitancy has been on the rise throughout much of the world for the past two decades. At the same time, existing pro-vaccination public health communication strategies have proven ineffective. We present a novel approach to increase vaccination intentions, which appeals to individuals' other-regarding preferences. Specifically, we assess how vaccination intentions are influenced by the presence of people who cannot vaccinate, such as the immunosuppressed, newborns or pregnant women, using a game where there is a passive player whose welfare depends on the decisions of other, active players. Results from a survey experiment targeting parents and from a laboratory experiment provide support for a twofold positive effect of the presence of the passive player on vaccination intentions. These findings suggest messages that invoke altruistic, other-regarding preferences may be an effective approach to increasing vaccination intentions. Our findings could be extended to other campaigns where the population is invited to adopt behaviors that can help the most susceptible people, as is the case of the self-quarantine measures adopted during the outbreak of CoVID-19 at the beginning of 2020. If the attention of people is focused on the positive effect that they can have on those that cannot protect themselves, then the message may be more effective and people may be more responsive.

While participatory e-government is increasingly advocated, few studies have investigated whether it is feasible across all national contexts. This study investigates how certain contextual features influence the success of participatory applications of e-government. In particular, it assesses how the political, economic, and social context in which a particular government operates influence the introduction of participatory e-government, and compares participatory e-government applications in Romania and South Korea. These nations possess important similarities and differences in their political, social, and economic contexts. The study results suggest that the success of participatory e-government projects is to a large extent contingent upon political and economic factors and less related to social factors.

Building on Cognitive Load Theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion this study attempts to deepen our understanding of how health information campaigns related to vaccination work. We predict that including statistical information in health information campaigns will serve as a distraction that suppresses comprehension that renders the campaign less effective at persuading the public to vaccinate. Results from a survey experiment conducted on samples of US (n = 605) and Italian parents (n = 505) show support for the hypothesized relationship depends upon the form of comprehension (comprehension of how vaccines work versus comprehension of potential adverse effects of vaccinating). Specifically, both US and Italian parents show including statistical information reduces comprehension of how vaccines work, in turn reducing parents' intentions to vaccinate themselves and their children. We find no support for the hypothesized mechanism when comprehension of potential adverse effects of vaccinating acts as the process variable.