Political and Developmental Correlates of Social Media Participation in Government: A Global Survey of National Leadership Websites

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(1)International Journal of Public Administration. ISSN: 0190-0692 (Print) 1532-4265 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/lpad20. Political and Developmental Correlates of Social Media Participation in Government: A Global Survey of National Leadership Websites James Katz & Daniel Halpern To cite this article: James Katz & Daniel Halpern (2013) Political and Developmental Correlates of Social Media Participation in Government: A Global Survey of National Leadership Websites, International Journal of Public Administration, 36:1, 1-15, DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2012.713286 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2012.713286. Published online: 04 Jan 2013.. Submit your article to this journal. Article views: 369. View related articles. Citing articles: 1 View citing articles. Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=lpad20 Download by: [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile]. Date: 16 May 2016, At: 11:54.

(2) International Journal of Public Administration, 36: 1–15, 2013 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0190-0692 print / 1532-4265 online DOI: 10.1080/01900692.2012.713286. ARTICLES. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. Political and Developmental Correlates of Social Media Participation in Government: A Global Survey of National Leadership Websites James Katz Division of Emerging Media Studies, College of Communications, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Daniel Halpern School of Communications, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile. This study examines the extent to which national governments are using Web-2.0 applications to increase transparency and engage citizens in decision-making processes. Based on a typology of governmental websites that distinguishes among executive office sites, government web portals and personal websites of heads of government, 160 websites from 82 different countries were examined, and results show that 70 percent of the websites do not offer any participatory services and surprisingly no positive relationships were found between e-participation and variables traditionally associated with e-government implementation. However, a difference between broadband and Internet penetration levels was found: whereas Internet was positively related to e-participation, broadband was only related to the release of information by governments, which is consistent with citizen pressure models of policy change. Keywords: e-government, social media, political communication technologies, online deliberation. INTRODUCTION The introduction and diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in government have traditionally been considered by scholars as a preeminent and efficient way to enhance government accountability (La Porte, de Jong, & Demchak, 2002), empower citizens (Macintosh, 2004), and diminish bureaucracy (Fountain, 2001). Internet advocates have claimed that the Web can enhance the voice of local leaders and increase the visibility of minorities (Chadwick, 2008), thus broadening politicians’ opportunities to inform citizens about policy issues and programs. Others have emphasized the role of technology in “e-democracy practices” as a facilitator of information and knowledge about political processes, with. Correspondence should be addressed to Daniel Halpern, Alameda 340, Facultad de Comunicaciones, Of. 706, Santiago, RM, 8331150, Chile. E-mail: halperndaniel@gmail.com. participation,. information. and. the potential to the change citizenry’s orientation from passively accessing information to actively participating in the governing process (Lee, Chang, & Berry, 2011). However, although many scholars agree about the revolutionary potential of web-based applications to transform the structure of government agencies by increasing the extent of networked communications and access to information, empirical research has also shown that this transformative potential could be limited by variables such as institutional arrangements, budget limitation, conflicts, cultural norms, and prevailing patterns of behavior (Fountain, 2001). Based on previous studies on e-government and literature grounded in human computer interaction and deliberative democracy theories (Chadwick, 2008; Fishkin, 1991; West, 2005), this study examines to what extent the three types of governmental websites identified across 82 countries (executive office sites, government web portals, and personal website of head of government), present web 2.0 applications designed to increase transparency and engage citizens in discussion, deliberation, and decision making process..

(3) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. 2. KATZ AND HALPERN. The purpose of this effort is to reach conclusions about the current global state of e-government initiatives integrating two main set of factors: from a policy perspective, this work explores whether variables identified by previous research as predictors of e-government adoption have an effect on the implementation of these web based applications, and from a user’s perspective, we examine how citizens have responded to these initiatives by measuring the traffic of the governmental websites, and its popularity by assessing the number of citizens (fans, viewers, followers) reached by its social media applications. In this way, we expect to contribute to a deeper understanding of how governments and political leaders are adopting web 2.0 applications for political participation, surveying what kinds of “democratic” features are available on-line, and the responsiveness of citizens to these initiatives.. LITERATURE REVIEW With the rapid advances in the field of information technology, governments around the world are facing new pressures to make their information more transparent (Layne & Lee, 2001), delivering better e-transactional services and increasing their accountability through new web based applications (Wong & Welch, 2004). As Shapiro (1999) and many other scholars note (e.g., Katz & Rice, 2002; Welch, Hinnant, Moon, 2005), the Internet revolution has produced an information culture that, as a result of the vast flow of information to which users are exposed, people today expect to get access to more transparent and open information from public and private organizations, regardless of its sector, objectives, size or location. However, as public administrative bodies are still struggling to fulfill these demands, the explosion of web 2.0 applications have generated yet higher expectations for more collaborative spaces that acknowledge citizens as emerging information producers/consumers and active participants in the policy process. And the reason is quite simple: these new web based services designed to develop, rate, collaborate and distribute Internet content through interactive information-sharing and user-centered tools (O’Reilly, 2005), have been seen as a new opportunity to enhance transparency in government institutions by decentralized approaches to content creation and new platforms for political and societal debates (Vickery, 2007). Many scholars in the political sphere have proposed new e-government models that consider citizens as shareholders in power rather than consumers of policy (Coleman & Gotze, 2001). In this way, democratic ICT can be oriented to transcend the traditional one-way model of service delivery that have characterized e-government portals (Norris & Moon, 2005), for collaborative platforms that are able to increase the diversity of opinion, the free flow of information and even make government decisions both more expertlyinformed and democratic (Noveck, 2009). This notion was. synthesized in the concept of “Networked Governance” in a United Nations (2008) report, which advocated to “governmental promotion of collective actions to advance the public good by engaging the creative efforts of the whole society” (p. 101). The next section reviews the literature and explains the main features of this new participative model of e-government. From Web 1.0 to 2.0: Towards a Social Network Model of E-Government In their attempts to define electronic government, scholars have conceptualized the term “e-Government” in varied ways, mostly depending on the emphasis and role assigned to the use of ICT for governance purposes (Norris, 2005; Yildiz, 2007). Whereas some e-Government’s conceptualizations have focused on the technological processes oriented to improve governmental and business relationships (West, 2005) and have considered ICT mainly as a managerial tool able to develop better quality of services (Norris & Moon, 2005), reducing operational costs and downsizing workforces (Weare, Musso, & Hale, 1999), others have centered on citizen participation issues and have seen ICT as channels to collect feedback from citizens, widening the possibilities for participation (Jaeger, 2005). Accordingly, a broad approach for e-Government should consider the implementation of front-office and back-office operations carried out digitally by government (Reddick, 2005), in order to provide more efficient and user focused services to citizens, business and other governmental agencies (Chadwick, 2008). In fact, the literature in the area has classified e-Government in three broad categories: Government-to-Government (G2G), Government-to-Citizen (G2C), and Government-to-Business (G2B). However, the classification and definitions discussed above focuses mostly on the technical features and civic consequences of the human-medium interaction between citizens and governmental services, without considering the “social” characteristic of the Internet, that by definition is a network through which people and organizations can interact and communicate with one another (Katz & Rice, 2002). This conception of computer-mediated social network is especially relevant today, given the emerging platforms that rely heavily on Web 2.0-based applications. Indeed, several scholars have claimed that a new category for e-government, Citizen-to-Citizen (C2C), should be added to consider the relationship between citizens that transpire under the communication channels afforded by governments (Yildiz, 2007). Further, with the advent of Web 2.0-based applications that allow users to collaborate and combine data from more than one source into a single integrated tools, citizens have started to “join forces” in order to impose their own needs and agendas (Zappen, Harrison, & Watson, 2008). Tribal groups in the Amazon rainforest for example, empowered by Google Earth and the assistance of the non-profit.

(4) SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. Amazon Conservation Team, have been using GPS units to locate resources of interest and then mapping them out on Google Earth to create grassroots support for their preservation (Tullock, 2007). Yet more significant, though, are the “surveillance” opportunities for residents to monitor the authorities using these social technologies. When citizens, for example, contrast their data on pothole complaints with data on pothole repairs generated by the government, such capabilities expose authorities’ behavior to citizens’ scrutiny, enabling citizens to reduce information asymmetries and uncovering inefficiencies, thus changing the power relationship between the parts. Government 2.0 as a Platform for Civic Participation Researchers agree that an essential function of e-government is the access and exchange of information, where citizens can interact with the government in a variety of ways such as email, online meetings, forums for voicing opinion and online voting (Norris & Moon, 2005). In this respect, e-government can affect access to and exchange of political information, communication about political issues, and communication with government officials and elected representatives (Jaeger, 2005). Scholars have traditionally studied the nature and direction of the relationship between government and citizens by assessing how far citizens are engaged through e-government initiatives. Research shows that early online government-citizen communication was primarily informational, a one-way relationship in which government produced and delivered information for use by citizens (Macintosh, 2004). This limited participative aspect is consistent with the first stage of several models of e-government (Layne & Lee, 2001; West, 2005), which is considered as an informational stage that encompasses the initial efforts of governments to establish an online presence. Many scholars see the development of government websites as an evolutionary process that may be compared to the development of the e-commerce model, which started with a broadcasting stage, followed by an interaction mode, then a transaction stage, and finally the integration with other commercial and financial institutions (Khan et al., 2010; Yildiz, 2007). According to this view, administrations matured from initially having only a web presence as was described above, to a transactional stage in which users interact with the government through transactional services such as requesting services, paying taxes, filing complaints and registration (Kaylor, Deshazo, & Van Eck, 2001). The third stage involves an integration process where departments collaborate either horizontally across governmental units (agencies working in the same functional area), or vertically among levels and layers of government (areas are integrated through a central portal), interconnecting the provision of e-government activities within the existing governmental structure. However, some researchers have added. 3. a fourth stage distinguishing between vertical and horizontal integration (Layne & Lee, 2001). This manuscript also adds a fourth step to the information, transaction and integration stages recognized by previous research, but emphasizes the incorporation of features designed to connect and engage citizens in discussion, deliberation, and decision making processes. West (2005) describes a comparable stage that is called interactive democracy, in which government websites offer advanced features through which citizens can provide feedback, make comments, have group discussions, and interact with similar others in order to boost democratic responsiveness and leadership accountability. Similarly, Moon (2002) presents a stage that involves the promotion of online forums and opinion surveys for more direct and wider interaction, such as tangible channels for citizen inputs into policy. Likewise, Rommele (2003) describes this process as the facilitation of multilateral links between citizens through online tools able to support the participation of many actors in online chat rooms or special question-and-answer sessions. Others have recognized a stage in which the use of ICTs improve the efficiency, equity, and quality of democratic participation, through mechanisms to consult and broadly engage citizens via web-based applications (Lee et al., 2011). Web 2.0-Based Applications Literature grounded in human-computer interaction has recognized four unique elements of this new set of Web 2.0based applications. First, with the arrival of personal broadcasting technologies, the traditional sender-receiver model of communication developed for mass media was altered, allowing users not only to be considered audiences, but also to become content-generators (Sundar, 2008). Second, in these social platforms, users not only create content but also categorize collectively the information present on the Web (Golder & Hubberman, 2006), giving users the capability to tag all types of data for future retrieval and indexing. Third, users in social media settings are constantly evaluating content, either actively by voting and even providing analytical assessments—e.g., reviewers on Amazon.com—or passively, by interacting with the content (their Web-browsing patterns are recorded). Finally, users have the ability to form social networks, by creating a profile within a bounded system and designating other users with similar interests as contacts, followers, fans, viewers, or friends (Rainie & Wellman, 2011). The analysis of the main properties and features of social media applications reveals the technology’s potential for increasing the two main mechanisms through which citizens can influence democratic decision-making (Macintosh, 2004). First, social media allows for “e-voting” through applications that enable new possibilities for voting, consultation and dialogue between government and citizens through Internet-based feedback mechanisms where several.

(5) 4. KATZ AND HALPERN. options exist for collectively evaluating decisions by users. Second, social media applications enable the formation of virtual meeting places, which can reinvigorate civic life by facilitating political discussion among citizens, raising awareness of collective problems and offering an alternative venue for political engagement. Previous research shows that although a greater use of information technologies may not be linked directly to greater civic participation (Shah et al., 2005), it does lead to increased informal communication among individuals (Sotirovic & McLeod, 2001), which in turn spurs civic engagement (Nisbet & Scheufele, 2004).. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. E-Government Adoption: Identifying Critical Factors Several models from political and information sciences areas have been applied in e-Government research to explain the impact of different factors in its adoption at global and local levels (Dada, 2002; Heeks, 2002; La Porte, Demchak, & de Jong, 2002; Moon, Welch, & Wong, 2005). First, scholars generally concur that political and civic norms exert an important influence and the level of e-government adopted is determined by the maturity of the citizenship and political system. Researchers have found that democratic and open societies, with higher levels of freedom of expression and political stability are more successful in the assimilation of e-government initiatives (Das, DiRienzo, & Burbridge, 2009). West (2005) explains that the level of political development is essential in determining the level of commitment adopted by authorities to release information and receive feedback from citizens, since open and free social atmospheres generally accelerate the spread of information around a country (Das et al., 2009), which is likely to be a result of their political and civic fundamental norms -democracy, transparency, and freedom (Lee et al., 2011). Similarly, Moon et al. (2005) argue that less democratic governments tend to marginally implement e-government initiatives since they generally do not want to engage in transparent and interactive relations with citizens or other agencies. On the other hand, based on growth and regional development theories, several authors have predicted the ability of non-political forces to promote e-government from outside of the public sphere, such as economy-pushing and technology-pushing forces. Siau and Long (2005) found that income level, education, development status, and region were strong predictors of e-government development. Similarly, Moon et al. (2005) found that diffusion and availability of ICT help government implement e-government initiative more easily. Focusing on successful experiences in several countries, Chen, Chen, Huang, and Ching (2006) identified four technological variables as predictors for successful e-government implementation: 1. the availability, cost, and quality of ICTs networks, services, and equipment;. 2. the level at which the educational system integrates ICTs into its processes to improve learning and technical training programs that prepare an ICT workforce; 3. how businesses and governments use ICTs to interact with the public, 4. the extent that the policy environment promotes or hinders the growth of ICT adoption. The literature has also contrasted e-government implementation in developing and developed countries to understand the effect of social, economic, and political variables (Dada, 2006; Heeks, 2002; La Porte et al., 2002). Studying several cases of e-government failure in developing countries, Heeks (2002) found that the main reason behind these failures is the large gap or “mismatch” between the capabilities required by the new technology and the physical, cultural, political, and economic contexts in which the system is implemented. He identified three archetypes of situations where design and reality gaps are common: 1. Hard-Soft Gaps: the difference between the actual technology—hard- and the social context (culture, politics, and economic situation) in which it operates— soft-; 2. Private-Public Gaps: a system that works in the private sector often does not work in the public one; and 3. and Country Context Gaps: the mismatch that happens when administrations try to implement the same e-government system for both developed and developing countries. Research Questions While previous studies have explored several factors in the adoption of e-government at the national level and other research has examined the extent to which web technology support participatory reforms of local governance, there has been no research on the comparison of websites of current head of governments and how users have responded to these initiatives. This article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the level of electronic participation supported by e-government applications and citizens’ responsiveness based on the following research questions and hypotheses: RQ1: What is the relationship between variables associated traditionally with e-government implementation such as level of democracy, education, freedom of expression, transparency, and Internet and broadband adoption in each country, with electronic participation and information access levels afforded by their national government websites? RQ2: What is the relationship between the applications and services offered by the three types of e-government websites and the level of responsiveness presented by citizens?.

(6) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT. Three sets of hypotheses are proposed. First, as many researchers have indicated, the successful adoption of e-government is likely to be a result of fundamental political and civic norms such as level of democracy and transparency. Rose (2005) holds that at least theoretically, the Internet makes possible for anyone, anywhere, anytime to voice a demand to government. However, e-participation requires political leaders to pay attention to the opinions of those they govern. Based on this idea it may be argued that the greater the government’s acceptance of civil liberties and media freedom, the greater should be the provision of e-participation facilities. Moon et al. (2005) also explain that generally less democratic governments employ technology to extend their control over people and institutions, therefore we expect: H1a: Countries with high levels of transparency will present higher levels of electronic participation and information access in their websites. H1b: Countries with high levels of democracy and freedom of expression will present more tools for electronic participation and information access. Singh, Das, and Joseph (2007) related the role of human capital and education in the growth and development of e-government, proposing that better educated citizens not only use online services but also exhort more government agencies to go online. La Porte et al. (2002) found that the level of public spending on education was also a relevant indicator for developing and sharing information. Furthermore, Lee et al. (2011) argue that as the general education level is raised in society, more citizens become informed and knowledgeable, which may result in a strong citizen pressure able to push the government to adopt popular policies, such as e-government and e-democracy. Similarly, research found a strong relationship between industrialized economies and online access (Norris, 2001). La Porte et al. (2002) explain that without sufficient computing resources and Internet facilities, the demand for access to digital information is much lower, impacting negatively the supply. On the other hand, as more people learn how to navigate and use electronic resources, there should be a greater demand for e-services, and since citizens and governments of rich countries can buy new technologies more easily than others, we argue: H2a: Countries with high Internet, broadband and personal computer penetration will present higher levels of electronic participation, transparency and information access. H2b: National income will be positively associated with higher levels of electronic participation, transparency and information access. H2c: Countries with high levels of education will present higher levels of electronic participation, transparency and information access.. 5. Research has shown that the availability of web-based applications designed to distribute content through interactive information-sharing and user-centered tools may promote transparency in government institutions (Shuler, Jaeger, & Bertot, 2010). It does this by providing citizens with access to information stored on the data systems and new platforms for political and societal debates (McIvor, McHugh, & Cadden, 2002), creating a virtual dialogue with citizens, which eventually makes bureaucratic officials open to public scrutiny and to pressures from those outside the narrow circle of political elites (Rose, 2005). On the other hand, it may be expected that more open administrations which include dialogues with citizens, will show a higher level of accessibility in their websites to facilitate the participation of users. Similarly, it may also be argued that users are going to visit more these participative websites where they can express themselves and post their own messages in order to start to interact with others. Finally, research has also shown how Web 2.0 tools offer governments the ability to gather and process information that enhances their ability to deduce what the public’s values are and how to engage users and deliver better e-services (Hui & Hayllar, 2010). Therefore, we expect: H3a: Countries with high levels of electronic participation and information access in their websites would present a higher number of social media tools. H3b: Countries with high levels of electronic participation and information access in their websites will show more contacts in their social media channels and higher Internet traffic. H3c: Countries that offer more e-services and, create a higher value for people, will experience higher traffic and more contacts in social media.. METHODS Sample Data for this article were collected from 160 websites using the following method. We identified countries that met the following criteria: relatively significant in terms of territory, population, economic power or political influence and prominence. Once we identified these countries, we sought to locate linguistically competent coders. (When we found coders whose linguistic background also allowed the analysis of smaller countries, we decided to include those countries as well.) When our selection effort was complete, 82 countries were included in our analysis. Our analysis encompasses countries under which more than 77 percent of the world’s population lives. In fact, the 82 countries covered in our sample represent 92.9 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP) and 93.3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) produced worldwide in 2010, according to.

(7) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. 6. KATZ AND HALPERN. data from the World Bank and the CIA World Factbook. We hasten to add that it was never our intention to conduct a statistically random sample but rather we sought to characterize the conditions under which the vast majority of the world’s population lives. Thus our statistics are descriptive, not inferential. Since no attempt was made to draw an inference from the sample to an unknown population, obviously our reports of statistical significance are only intended as indicators of strength of a relationship rather than to reflect a P-value. As a first step in our data analysis, we examined the different types of government websites presented by a group of 15 countries. Based on this group, we identified three main types of websites: executive office sites (e.g., president, prime minister, king/queen), government web portals and personal website of head of government. Then we analyzed a range of websites within each country to get a full sense of the features and e-services supported by the websites. After creating, defining, and operationalizing the variables, a coding instrument was developed with examples of the three types of websites used by the US government: www.whitehouse.com as the executive office website; www. barackobama.com as the personal website of head of government; and www.usa.gov as the government web portal. 17 coders searched the official websites of each head of government and coded those websites that were in their own mother tongue. See Appendix I for a list of countries examined. The coders, fluent in both English and their native language, first reviewed the coding guide with one of the authors and then coded the websites between April 5 and May 19, 2011. To ensure inter-coder reliability and to test the consistency of the categorization scheme, an analysis using Cohen’s Kappa was performed. Out of the 160 websites, 32 websites were randomly selected, resulting in an average Kappa coefficient of 0.78 for the six variables established, ranging from 0.71 to 0.93, as it is described below. All the variables were coded based on a typical coding scheme that simply dichotomously assesses presence or absence of the feature analyzed or type of content. During the development process of the coding scheme, researchers repeatedly updated the different variables. If coders found a feature not listed on the coding scheme, they wrote a brief description of that feature on the coding sheet. Defining E-Democracy Although there are many different forms to conceptualize e-democracy, based on the extant literature grounded in deliberative democracy theories, we understand this term as the use of web-based services to: a. increase the transparency of the political process enabling citizens higher access to political information; and. b. enhance the participation of citizens in the democratic process giving them the opportunity to vote on relevant issues and improve the quality of opinion formation by opening new spaces for deliberation. Consequently, we looked for features able to support electronic access to data and political information, and tools that promote new spaces for voting and deliberation, such as meaningful online polls and e-forums. Dependent Variables and Scales Electronic participation This scale (Kappa = 0.83) consists of six variables to assess the level of electronic participation supported by the website: Possibility for uploading public comments, vote on a given topic, online petition/protest, existence of Online Poll (survey), bulletin board, and chat room. Information access This scale (Kappa = 0.72) measured the level of access to data that citizens had on the website, identifying four features: possibility of downloading reports or publications, access to budget, access to the schedule or agenda of the head, and existence of a briefing room. Traffic rank To measure the popularity of the websites in both local and global level we used Alexa, a web traffic diagnostic tool (http://www.alexa.com). The Alexa traffic rank is calculated using a combination of mean daily visitors and page views over the past three months, comparing the ranking that each websites has in a country in relation to the other websites in the country. The rank scores were collected on June 13, 2001. We also included the Alexa’s reputation measurement which is the number of links to the particular website in order to control by this variable in the final regression models. Social media popularity This variable considers the number of contacts that each social media channel has. Independent Variables Types of websites We distinguished three main types of websites: executive office sites, government web portals, and personal website of head of government. The categorization was made based on the functions and characteristics of the website; executive office sites are the official website of head of government such as president, prime minister, minister, king or queen. The government web portals include two forms of websites:.

(8) SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT. the official website of government for promotional purposes and e-government websites with more practical functions for citizens’ convenience. Last, personal websites of head of government indicates the additional website of the titular head of government or head of state which rarely has the administrative function but focuses on the biography or personal communication of the head of state as an individual.. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. Number of personal computers, Internet, and broadband penetration These indicators were collected from the UN’s 2010 global e-government report and consider the number of personal computers, Internet users and number of fixed broadband subscribers per 100 persons. Although the precise speed that distinguishes “broadband” from slower forms of Internet access is a contested matter, we followed the standards utilized by the UN which defines broadband as transmission channels capable of supporting bit rates greater than the primary rate which ranged from about 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s. Education The source for this variable was also the e-government report by the UN (2010) and it is a composite of two indicators: adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio. Democratic freedom The Freedom Status and Electoral Democracy Status indexes were taken from the 2010 annual Freedom in the World survey conducted by Freedom House. The Freedom Status index is a combination between civil liberties such as freedom of expression and media independence, and political rights such as electoral process, political pluralism and participation. Depending on the average of both rating, each nation’s Freedom Status is then classified as “Free,” “Partly Free,” or “Not Free.” Electoral democracy This is a dichotomous variable that differentiates between democratic and non-democratic countries measuring the presence of a series of national characteristics such as: competitive multiparty political system, universal adult suffrage for all citizens, reasonable ballot security, and the absence of massive voter fraud that yields results that are unrepresentative of the public will. Transparency This variable is based on the Corruption Perception Index developed by Transparency International. It is an aggregate indicator that measures the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians.. 7. Economic development The source for this variable was the CIA Factbook (2011) and the GDP per capita measured in U.S. dollars. Other Variables Usability Four features were used to construct this scale (Kappa = 0.71): Mobile version of website, Search Bar, Sitemap, Subscription Services (e.g., RSS, Newsletter, Log In/Register). Feedback utility (Kappa = 0.9) Possibility of contact via Phone/Fax, website, Email, getting Real time (online) help. Social media This variable (Kappa = 0.93) counts for the total number of social media channels embedded in the website or accessed by links to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs, and other services. E-services This variable (Kappa = 0.91) considers the number of e-services offered. Population The source for this variable was the CIA Factbook (2011). Data Analyses Hierarchical multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models were employed to explore the relationships among electronic participation, information access, Internet traffic, number of social media contacts, and the variables recognized as significant predictors by previous research. The models were divided in two blocks: the first one includes structural variables related to each country, such democratic levels, transparency, economic development, population, and Internet, personal computers, and broadband penetration, whereas the second factors were related to design and operability features of the websites that may influence the dependent variables, such as type of website for the first two sets of hypotheses, and usability and feedback features to predict web traffic. To test whether electronic participation and information access have a positive effect on the number of social media applications, the number of contacts (citizens participating as followers, viewers or likers), and Internet traffic, as hypothesized in H3, both variables were entered in the final model as predictors. To respond the first research question and see whether there is a difference between executive office sites,.

(9) 8. KATZ AND HALPERN. government web portals and personal websites of head of government, a one-way ANOVA was conducted to test for possible variations.. RESULTS. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. Descriptive Statistics and Bivariate Analyses Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. The data confirm the electronic participation and information access in government websites is low. Most of the websites analyzed do not allow users to upload publicly their comments, participate in online polls, vote on a given topic, create/form an online petition/ protest or have a conversation in a chat room: 70 percent of the websites do not support any of these services, 22.2 percent present one, 5.2 percent two of these applications, and only 2.6 percent support three. Similarly, only one-third of the websites allow citizens to download information about their government such as budgets, reports, or publications. Regarding the use of social media applications, the most frequently used are: Twitter (42.6 percent), Facebook (33.8 percent), YouTube (30.3 percent), and Flickr (19.5 percent). The data also revealed that 18.8 percent of the websites present blogs or forums to interact with citizens, but only 13 percent enable users to make public comments on the website. The traffic of the websites managed by governments it is relatively low compared to other websites of the same countries (M = 7,026, SD = 10,354). However, as the high standard deviation shows, the rankings across countries are highly dispersed and there are some exceptions to this TABLE 1 Descriptive Statistics for Dependent Variables % Electronic Participation None feature One feature Two features Three or more features Information Access No data available for download One document for download Two documents for download Three or more Feedback utility Usability Local Traffic Rank Number Social Media Applications Number of e-government services YouTube Subscribers Facebook Likers Twitter Followers. Mean. SD. 2.01 2.99 7, 026.74 1.58 1.21 9, 623.87 531, 048.84 350, 669.37. .96 1.5 21, 299.96 1.98 1.72 37, 482.98 2, 919, 104.06 1, 246, 401.56. 70 22.2 5.2 2.6 4.7 20.8 32.9 41.6. 30.3 33.8 42.6. Notes: In the mean of contacts of each social media application, it is also shown what percentage of websites present the applications.. general tendency. Venezuela and Canada’s e-government websites are situated in the 13th and 14th place of the local ranking respectively. Concerning the number of contacts in the most used social media channels, government in average have 350,669 followers in Twitter, 531,048 “Likers” on Facebook, and 9,623 subscribers on YouTube. Table 2 provides the correlation matrix for all the variables. It is important to note four main relationships in this table. First the Democratic Freedom and Electoral Democracy indexes are positively correlated with transparency of information, accessibility, feedback features, and the number of social media channels offered by the websites. These correlation measures suggest that countries with higher levels of political rights and civil liberties also have more open and accessible websites. Similarly, the data show a positive relationship between the level of Internet, personal computers, and broadband penetration in each country with transparency, accessibility, feedback utilities, and the number of social media channels and e-services offered by the websites, which is also consistent with previous research in e-government readiness (Moon et al., 2005). Third, the table shows that the level of transparency perceived in each country is positively associated with information access, accessibility, feedback features, the number of social media channels, and e-government services offered by the websites. Finally, electronic participation is also positively related with accessibility, feedback utilities, number of social media channels, and e-services offered by the websites. To answer the second research question and see whether governments are using their websites differently, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed. The results from this analysis, which are detailed in Table 3, indicate that the type of website had a significant effect on information access (F (2,148) = 5.82, p < .01), feedback utilities (F (2,153) = 4.15, p < .05), the number of social media channels (F (2,157) = 5.75, p < .01), and e-services offered by the websites (F (2,153) = 14.91, p < .001). As can be seen in Table 3, the mean values for the three categories indicate that personal websites of head of government present lower feedback features and access to information than the other two websites, but on the other hand also present a higher number of social media channels to communicate with citizens. Similarly, the data also show that government web portals offer a higher number of e-government services compared to the other two types of websites. Multivariate Analysis After testing all independent variables for heteroscedasticity, some were log transformed to correct for non-normal distribution. The log of Transparency, GDP, Population, Traffic ranks, and number of followers, likers, and subscribers were used because none of these variables were normally distributed. The variables were also tested for multicolinearity..

(10) 9. – −.13 −.09 .07 .06 −.07 −.11 .02 −.02 .11 .03 .16∗ .09 .04 .07 .19∗ .65∗∗ .64∗∗ .55∗∗ – .69∗∗ .44∗∗ .51∗∗ .77∗∗ .63∗∗ .85∗∗ .65∗∗ .19∗ .16 .17∗ .22∗∗ −.06 .157 .01 −.06 .05 −.07. 2. 4. – .45∗∗ – .54∗∗ .86∗ .82∗∗ .27∗∗ .71∗∗ .46∗∗ .73∗∗ .38∗∗ .62∗∗ .45∗∗ .37∗∗ .31∗∗ .18∗ .22∗∗ .2∗ .22∗∗ .14 .06 .03 −.08 .147 .31∗∗ .07 .01 .41 .08 .27 .27 .04 −.15. 3. Notes: Correlations are significant ∗ p ≤ .05, ∗∗ p ≤ .01.. Population Transparency Education Electoral Democracy Freedom Status GDP PC Penetration Internet Penetration Broadband Penetration Usability Feedback Social Media Apps. Number e-services Electronic Participation Information Access Local Traffic Rank Twitter Followers YouTube Subscribers Facebook Likers. 1. – .38∗∗ .49∗∗ .5∗∗ .49∗∗ .32∗∗ .17∗ .26∗∗ .09 −.07 .32∗∗ .03 .16 .41∗∗ −.03. 5. 7. – .54∗∗ – .81∗∗ .63∗∗ .54∗∗ .59∗∗ .34∗∗ .3∗∗ .21∗ .32∗∗ .23∗∗ .16∗ .27∗∗ .08 .04 −.03 .09 .26∗∗ .04 −.21∗ .01 .03 .15 .16 .05 −.09. 6. – .66∗∗ .28∗∗ .15 .21∗ .19∗ .052 .85 .01 .09 .22 .26. 8. – .23∗∗ .08 .08 −.05 −.13 .29∗∗ −.09 .01 .16 −.03. 9. – .41∗∗ .34∗∗ .32∗∗ .27∗∗ .16 −.01 .05 .16 .04. 10. TABLE 2 Intercorrelations among Study Variables. – .16∗ .39∗∗ .26∗∗ .21∗∗ −.14 .02 −.19 .03. 11. – .17∗ .38∗∗ .2∗ .03 .06 .28 .11. 12. – .2∗ .01 −.18 .14 .04 .13. 13. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. – −.07 .11 .02 .01 .29∗. 14. – −.05 .14 .09 −.1. 15. – .15 .07 .34∗. 16. – .64∗∗ .8∗∗. 17. – .62∗∗. 18. –. 19.

(11) 10. KATZ AND HALPERN TABLE 3 Descriptive Statistics for Types of Websites. Electronic Participation Information Access Feedback utility Usability Number Social Media Applications Number of e-government services. Executive Office. Government Web Portals. Personal website. N. .38 (.67) 2.48 (1.04) 2.01 (.96) 2.76 (1.5) 1.61 (2.14) .61 (1.3). .39 (.71) 2.21 (1.01) 2.16 (1.09) 3.22 (.14) 1.21 (1.53) 1.99 (1.87). .55 (.86) 1.47 (.91) 1.39 (1.06) .3 (1.46) 2.9 (2.42) .5 (1.3). 154 150 155 143 159 155. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. Notes: Means are presented and standard deviations are in parentheses. TABLE 4 OLS Regression Predicting Electronic Participation and Information Access (N = 156). LogPopulation Transparency Broadband Penetration Education PC Penetration Internet Penetration LogGDP Electoral Democracy Freedom Status R2 change (%) Government web portal (1 is presence) Personal Website of Head of Government (1 is presence) R2 change (%) Constant Adjusted R2. Electronic Participation. Information Access. .011 (.093) −.079 (.054) −.009∗ (.005) 1.179 (.956) −.001 .002 .011∗ (.005) −.150 (.327) .046 (.242) −.023 (.183). .243 (.124) .017 (.074) .014∗∗ (.005) −1.651 (1.314) .008∗ (.003) −.011 (.007) .281 (.452) .212 (.833) .252 (.214). 3.3 −.022 (.144) .056 (.194) 0.1 .312 3.4. 14.9 −.281 (.171) −.943∗∗∗ (.283) 5.7 2.15 20.6. Notes: b = unstandardized regression coefficients with standard error in parentheses are presented. R2 change refers to the unique contribution of each block of variables controlling for the previous variables entered in the regression. ∗ p ≤ .05, ∗∗ p ≤ .01, ∗∗∗ p ≤ .001.. Table 4 shows two different models representing the relationships between the level of electronic participation and information access afforded by the websites, with the variables hypothesized as predictors: number of personal computers, Internet and broadband penetration, education, political freedom and democratic levels, transparency, and economic development. These models were controlled by country population, but also for the type of website since the previous ANOVA test showed that governments were using. their websites differentially. The total variance in electronic participation explained by the regression model was only 3.4 percent, and for information access was 20.7 percent. The block of variables related to the structural variables and the websites had a larger explanatory power in the information access model, which might be partially associated to the fact that the types of e-government websites were not significant different in electronic participation. The models show that from the structural variables identified as predictors by previous research, only Internet, broadband and personal computer penetration had a significant effect on electronic participation and information access. Consequently, contrary to what H1a and H1b predicted, the level of transparency, freedom of expression and democratic levels were related to neither to electronic participation nor information access. However, it is interesting to note that whereas Internet penetration (β = .011, p < .05) is positively related to electronic participation, and number of personal computers to information access (β = .008, p < .05), as was predicted in H2a, broadband penetration showed mixed results. Specifically, broadband penetration is associated positively with information access (β = .014, p < .01), but negatively associated with electronic participation (β = −.008, p < .05). Plausible explanations for these differences will be discussed in the next section. Education and national income were significant predictors of neither electronic participation nor information access, as was hypothesized in H2b and H2c. Concerning the number of social media applications supported by the government websites, partial support was found for H3a: electronic participation was positive related to the use of social media (β = .997, p < .01), however no significant difference was found in information access. H3b predicted that electronic participation and information access features in government websites will be a significant predictor for number of contacts in social media channels and local traffic rank. Although this positive relationship was not found, results suggest that education is positively related with local traffic rankings (β = 5.154, p < .001). On the other hand, the number of personal computers (β = −.01, p < .01) and broadband penetration (β = −.016, p < .01) were negatively associated to local traffic ranking. We also expected that countries that offer more e-services would.

(12) SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT. experience higher traffic and more contacts in social media, but the effect found was in the opposite direction predicted in H3c: the number of e- services was negatively related to the traffic of the websites (β = −.167, p < .01). Concerning the number of social media contacts, neither of the hypothesized relationships was positively associated.. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. DISCUSSION The purpose of this study was to analyze to the extent that national governments are using their websites to increase transparency and engage citizens in deliberation and decision-making processes. Consistent with previous research (West 2005), results suggest that most governments are doing very little to encourage online participation. While we reported that 70 percent of the websites do not support participatory services, the last UN report (2010) found 82 percent of countries in the bracket of low e-participation. Paradoxically, several countries that present blogs in their websites only permit citizens to link the information but do not allow users to participate creating new content in their website, which is also consistent with the poor support for online conversations between government and citizens traditionally reported in the literature (Stromer-Galley, 2000). Two different implications might be considered in analyzing the situation observed in these websites. First, by making available to other users the information published in their websites but without allowing them to make comments, governments are not relinquishing the control over the information that appears on their websites. This lack of willingness to make public the opinions expressed by others, and the use of blogs to transmit messages instead to open a dialogue, may imply that new technologies are being used as a channel to accentuate existing political processes and not to empower citizens. Furthermore, previous research has found that websites with interactive features present higher level of credibility, since users project how receptive is the organization behind the website based on their interaction (Bucy, 2004). Research by Sundar and colleagues concluded that in political websites interactivity influences participants’ perceptions of the candidate as well as their levels of agreement with his policy positions. Consequently, it could be argued that if visitors cannot post opinions and participate in conversations with other users, they will perceive governments less transparent and credible. And second, by this practice governments are restricting the potential that these applications have to form virtual meeting places, which can be used to reinvigorate civic life by facilitating political discussion among citizens. Blogs enable users to construct dialogues based on previous messages, serving as a catalyst for new ideas, more extensive conversations and also to refine the suggestions originally posted. Curbing this feature, governments are reducing not only the number and quality of inputs.. 11. We also found that only Internet, personal computers and broadband adoption were significantly related to electronic participation and information access respectively. This conclusion is convergent with Norris (2001) who concluded that the spread of Internet use plays the single most significant predicator of national e-government adoption. From a theoretical standpoint the citizen pressure model might be used to support this association. This framework argues the demandside causes more advanced e-democracy development since governments improve their websites when they experience public pressure from citizens adopting e-democratic practices (Berry & Berry, 2007; Lee et al., 2011). Furthermore, we also found an important difference between broadband and Internet penetration that reinforces the significance of citizens’ pressure in the implementation of e-government services: whereas Internet is positively related to electronic participation features, broadband is to the release of data and information by government websites. These results suggest that in countries in which citizens have a “high-speed” access and high rate of data transmission—contrasted with the traditional dial-up access, governments allow citizens to download more data and information. On the other hand, in countries in which citizens have higher access to Internet, governments allow them to participate more through their websites, which is consistent with models of e-government adoption based on the information systems literature (Khan et al., 2010). Kuk (2003) compared the quality of local e-government services and the levels of Internet access in UK, and he found the quality of local government websites in regions of low household Internet access was significantly poorer in terms of information content and relatively limited in terms of the range of e-enabled services. It is also striking that most of the proposed predictors appeared to be insignificant. A brief description of two countries may be useful to illustrate this phenomenon. The Kingdom of Bahrain for example is considered a constitutional monarchy. The Prince has been Bahrain’s head of government since 1971, so according to all the democratic, transparency and freedom rankings, the country is situated low. However, the government portal presents: 1. the existence and publication of an e-consultation policy; 2. a central blog for government officials to post a statement and respond to the comments or questions; 3. online surveys and polls on various topics; 4. awards to recognize the contribution of creative and innovative citizens; and 5. enhanced interaction with citizens through social media, including Facebook and YouTube pages. Uruguay, on the other hand, which is considered a democratic country with high indexes of political freedom, education, and Internet and broadband penetration is just.

(13) 12. KATZ AND HALPERN. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. the opposite: its websites do not present any participatory application, and in terms of information access citizens can only download two reports and the annual budget. The lack of a relationship between the hypothesized variables might also be explained using the diffusion literature, which assumes that governments compete with each other, especially with nearby countries, emulating policies to gain economic advantages or to avoid being disadvantaged (La Porte et al., 2002). Therefore, it may be argued that e-governance is influenced by geographical or commercial connections among countries, and not necessarily by cultural, political, or economic factors.. Finally, this research aimed to study how users have responded to the e-government initiatives. Fist we found that in countries with high adult literacy and school enrollment rates, government websites have a higher traffic than in less educated countries. One possible explanation is that the level of education may influence citizens’ online behaviors, causing that more educated people prefer to get information or make a transaction from a government portal instead of other websites. The negative relationship between the reputation measurement (the number of links to the particular website) and the ranking traffic in government websites indicated in Table 5 (β = −.251, p < .01), may. TABLE 5 OLS Regression Predicting Local Traffic Ranking, Number of Social Media Apps and Contacts. LogPopulation Transparency Broadband Penetration Education PC Penetration Internet Penetration LogGDP Electoral Democracy Freedom Status R2 change (%) Usability Feedback Features e-government services Information Access LogLinks e-participation features Social media Government web portal (1 is presence) Personal website of Head of Government (1 is presence) R2 change (%) Constant Adjusted R2 (%). Local Traffic Ranking. Twitter Followers. YouTube Viewers. Facebook Likers. Social Media Channels. .593∗∗∗ (.154) .125† (.073) −.016∗∗ (.006) 5.154∗∗∗ (1.391) −.01∗∗ (.003) −.001 (.935) −.191 (.659) .053 (.046) −.090 (.209) 17.7 −.034 (.064) −.066 (.1) −.167∗∗ (.066) .073 (.092) −.251∗∗ (.128) .207 (.124) −.012 (.047) .203 (.369) .286 (.199). .840∗ (.41) .049 (.170) −.01 (.016) 4.249 (5.861) −.003 (.009) −.005 (.014) −.56 (1.438) −.893 (.671) .937† (.547) 34.2 −.149 (.143) .413† (.222) .136 (.171) .08 (.215) .094 (.098) .006 (.255) −.053 (.124) −.657 (.379) .789 (.719). .7 (.465) −.229 (.196) −.011 (.015) 3.241 (5.422) −.022 (.009) −.006 (.014) 1.3 (1.52) −.771 (.718) 1.293∗ (.547) 57.4 −.174 (.154) .152 (.249) .124 (.127) .177 (.239) .055 (.398) .085 (.299) .074 (.188) −.086 (.534) 1.844∗ (.8). .314 (.471) −.269 (.191) .019 (.018) −3.828 (6.51) −.06 (.008) .023 (.014) −.006 (.021) .307 (.91) .294 (.665) 35.1 −.223 (.168) .255 (.232) .131 (.237) .042 (.03) .579 (.433) .542† (.297) .110 (.142) −.773 (.508) .002 (1.238). −.007 (.261) .036 (.137) −.008 (.011) −2.071 (2.346) .002 (.006) −.009 (.014) 1.031 (.823) .372 (.596) .309 (.383) 3.7 .220† (.125) −.075 (.186) .028 (.122) .271 (.169) .199 (.229) .988∗∗ (.227). 6 −3.64 23.7. 2.4 −6.25 36.6. 0.8 −10.75 58.2. 1.7 3.617 36.8. 19.5 −3.42 23.2. −.48 (.356) 1.184† (.625). Notes: b = unstandardized regression coefficients with standard error in parentheses are presented. R2 change refers to the unique contribution of each block of variables controlling for the previous variables entered in the regression. †p ≤ .10, ∗ p ≤ .05, ∗∗ p ≤ .01, ∗∗∗ p ≤ .001..

(14) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile] at 11:54 16 May 2016. SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPATION IN GOVERNMENT. support this argument. This means that users visit government websites directly, and not through external links promoting the websites, which indicates that they already know what they want to do in those sites. A second possibility is that education could change users interests to interact more civically using the Internet, which is consistent with research by Norris (2001) and many others scholars (Katz & Rice, 2002), who concluded that users with college education are more likely to go online for information about in-person political activities than were those with lower levels of education. We also found that the number of personal computers and broadband penetration were negatively associated with the local traffic ranking of government websites. These findings may be explained in the following way: when users have better access to Internet and high rate of data transmission, on the one hand they may prefer to do more entertainment oriented activities instead of using Internet for civic purposes such as download movies or playing online games. On the other hand, since early adopters are generally highly educated users (Katz & Rice, 2002), it is expected that as higher is the penetration, less educated people will have access to the web, and since they are less interested in civic activities, thus broadband penetration may contribute negatively to the traffic in the government websites. And third, we found the number of e-services was negatively related to the traffic of the government websites. We had hypothesized a positive relationship based on the idea that higher levels of satisfaction in citizens lead to higher levels of adoption, and consequently countries that offer more e-services would create a higher value for people. One plausible reason for this negative relationship may be explained by the qualities of e-services offered by the government: maybe they are not satisfying users’ expectations and instead of solving problems, these services may create more confusion. Limitations By analyzing only three types of websites this study can only consider what transpires under the umbrella of these e-government websites. This restriction precludes generalizations about the overall communication and deliberative patterns in other levels of government such as websites managed by local authorities. Additionally, for technical reasons only 82 countries were analyzed, and such constraints suggest that conclusions are based on limited information. The findings, however, are valuable in the sense that they provide substantial insight into how national governments that represent more than 77 percent of the global population utilize their web 2.0 applications and how users respond to these initiatives. An enduring challenge will be to determine how robust these findings are, and to what extent they may be generalized to other governmental forms. The implications of this research, to the extent they are confirmed, go to the heart. 13. of promises of social media as a means of better-informed and more effective citizen participation.. CONCLUSION One of the brightest hopes for the Internet was that it would usher in a new era of democracy and public participation (Lee et al., 2011). Governments would become transparent and citizens would become empowered (Noveck, 2009). If our findings are sustained, though, there is little evidence that this is happening at the national level of many nations. Rather, the governmental websites seem to emphasize notifying the public of the government’s agenda or making the citizens more informed about governmental activities, but little in the way of allowing citizens to influence governmental policy. Perhaps even more striking is that there is little difference between the practices of many authoritarian governments and those that are characterized by democratic regimes. If our findings are borne out, this would raise fascinating questions about the relationship between social media and democratic culture (Katz, 2009). And although the level of economic development and communication infrastructure is associated with governmental transparency it is not associated with citizen input affordances. This calls into further question the notion that the technology of Web 2.0-based platforms is politically empowering for what might be considered everyday politics, as opposed to revolutions and demonstrations. Further, it appears that the variation in a sense is greater within countries as opposed to between countries in terms of what affordances the websites actually offer. That is to say, across countries the websites of political leaders seem to share more features than they do with the within country head of government websites. Political websites also seemed to have more affordances and richer media than do the governmental websites. This finding suggests that the sociology of political position is more important than particular national cultures and regimes, at least insofar as the use of social media for governments. Perhaps the most surprising finding is that local political needs trump any other variables such as democratic conditions in determining what the politically engaged public sees and the tools through which they can express their views. Although our data are far too impressionistic to declare any final conclusion it nonetheless raises provocative questions about the globalization of social media for governments at the national level. Although clearly some dimensions of governmental leadership websites vary according to political, economic, and infrastructural conditions, there is also at times very little difference among these dimensions despite great nation-by-nation differences. At the very least, the pattern of differences and similarities found in cross-national comparisons suggest that social media 2.0 has not moved.

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