“Public Budget Dialogue” – An Innovative Approach to E-Participation

The social media participation framework : studying the effects of social media on nonprofit communities

“…Previous efforts in practice to enhance public participation with electronic web tools did not meet expectations (Anadiotis et al, 2010;Roeder et al, 2005;Stern, Gudes & Svoray, 2009). …”

“…For example, in Coleman and Gøtze's analysis of case studies in twelve different countries, they observed that e-participation initiatives are frustrated because of two recurring problems: "Too few people know about them and governments fail to integrate them into the policy process or respond to them effectively" (Roeder et al, 2005, p. 49). Also Roeder et al (2005) describe the challenges of a public budget dialogue in Esslingen in Germany. "Similar to other public internet forums the first attempts were not accepted by the public and lacked participants and contributions" (Roeder et al, 2005, p.50).…”

“…Furthermore, our review indicated that existing instruments such as participation ladders from the e-participation field are not directly suitable for evaluating the effects of social media. Finally, the literature review revealed that the available instruments in literature primarily focused on previous web tools such as forums, chat and online surveys instead of social media (Phang & Kankanhalli, 2008;Roeder et al, 2005;Stern, Gudes & Svoray, 2009).…”

“…This step is about members working together with citizens, empowering them with responsibilities, tasks and opportunities to collaborate with the party's community. Previous efforts in trying to empower citizens often failed (Phang & Kankanhalli, 2008;Roeder et al, 2005;Stern, Gudes & Svoray, 2009). This was due to immature technology and low user adoption rates.…”

“…However, they should be careful: previous efforts in e-participation to strengthen political participation using Internet tools, such as Internet forums and chat, have not brought revolutionary outcomes (Anadiotis et al, 2010;Roeder et al, 2005;Stern, Gudes & Svoray, 2009;). Moreover, Vissers et al (2012) state that, when looking for effects, there should be a distinction between offline and online forms of political participation.…”