Abstract
This chapter analyzes the Web sites of the environment departments of European local government signatories of the Aalborg+10 Commitments. It represents an example of evaluating a first category of e-participation, that is, electronic access to information. The aim is to establish the extent to which the signatories make use of the Internet to promote e-participation and environmentally friendly behaviors among their citizens. Our results show that the developments in e-participation are higher in those areas just giving information than in areas of interactive communication. The Internet, as a tool to revitalize the public sphere, is still limited to those countries with higher levels of transparency and a culture of citizen engagement.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Kyoto Protocol 1997, Copenhagen Climate Change Conference 2009, and 2012 Rio+20 Conference.
- 2.
See http://www.sustainablecities.eu/aalborg-process. Accessed 28 July 2015.
- 3.
In Italy and Spain, the inclusion of all the signatory cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants would have distorted the composition of the sample. According to García-Sánchez and Prado-Lorenzo (2008), the number of municipalities that have signed the Commitments in Italy and Spain is so much higher than in other countries that it cannot be assumed to be realistic. Public management literature (Hood 1995; Pollitt et al. 2007; Torres 2004) often distinguishes southern European countries for adopting symbolic policies. So, in these two countries, only the five most populated cities have been included, together with some other cities with a good reputation regarding sustainability and environmental policies (see http://www.sustainablecities.eu). Accessed 28 July 2015.
- 4.
All the coding was undertaken by one person with previous experience in Web site analysis. Therefore, inter-coder reliability is not a problem in this research. A full crosscheck of the coding criteria was carried out by the three authors with the first five cases to ensure the quality of the process.
- 5.
These results have to be taken with caution, as the number of cities analyzed per country differs and in some cases (Belgium, Austria, and Latvia) only one city has been analyzed. However, this grouping has exploratory value for an initial interpretation of the results.
References
Allegretti G, Herzberg C (2004) Participatory budgets in Europe. Between efficiency and growing local democracy Vol. TNI Briefing Series No 2004/5
Ball A (2002) Sustainability accounting in UK local government: an agenda for research. London: Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Research Report No. 78
Bonsón E, Torres L, Royo S, Flores F (2012) Local e-government 2.0: social media and corporate transparency in municipalities. Gov Inf Q 29(2):123–132
Bouckaert G, Peters BG (2002) Performance measurement and management: the Achilles’ heel in administrative modernization. Public Perform Manage Rev 25(4):359–362
Brody SD, Zahran S, Grover H, Vedlitz A (2008) A spatial analysis of local climate change policy in the United States: risk, stress, and opportunity. Landscape Urban Plan 87(1):33–41
Cooper S, Pearce G (2011) Climate change performance measurement, control and accountability in English local authority areas. Account Audit Account J 24(8):1097–1118
Cuthill M (2002) Exploratory research: citizen participation, local government and sustainable development in Australia. Sustain Dev 10(2):79–89
EIU (2009) European green city index. Assessing the environmental impact of Europe’s major cities: Economist Intelligence Unit. http://www.economistinsights.com/energy/analysis/european-green-city-index. Accessed 27 July 2015
European Commission (2006) Cohesion policy and cities: the urban contribution to grow and jobs in the regions. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV:g24239. Accessed 27 July 2015
Gant DB, Gant JP (2002) Enhancing e-service delivery e-government series, state web portals: delivering and financing e-service: Pricewaterhouse Coopers endowment
Garcia-Sanchez IM, Prado-Lorenzo J-M (2008) Determinant factors in the degree of implementation of local agenda 21 in the European Union. Sustain Dev 16(1):17–34
García-Sánchez I-M, Rodríguez-Domínguez L, Gallego-Álvarez I (2011) The relationship between political factors and the development of e-participatory government. Inf Soc 27(4):233–251
Grizzle GA (2002) Performance measurement and dysfunction: the dark side of quantifying work. Public Perform Manage Rev 25(4):363–369
Hood C (1995) The new public management in the 1980s-variations on a theme. Account Organ Soc 20(2–3):93–109
Kelly JM (2002) Why we should take performance measurement on faith (facts being hard to come by and not terribly important). Public Perform Manage Rev 25(4):375–380
Martin S, Boaz A (2000) Public participation and citizen-centred local government: lessons from the best value and better government for older people pilot programs. Public Money Manage 20(2):47–53
Norris DF, Moon MJ (2005) Advancing e-government at the grassroots: tortoise or hare? Public Admin Rev 65(1):64–75
OECD (2001) Citizens as partners. Information, consultation and public participation in policy-making. OECD, Paris
OECD (2011) Greening household behaviour: the role of public policy. OECD, Paris
Ostrom E (2009) A polycentric approach for coping with climate change. World Bank, Washington, DC
O’Sullivan E, Rassel GR, Berner M (2007) Research Methods for Public Administration. 5th ed. Longman, New York
Pina V, Torres L, Royo S (2007) Are ICTs improving transparency and accountability in the EU regional and local governments? an empirical study. Public Admin 85(2):449–472
Pina V, Torres L, Yetano A (2009) Accrual accounting in EU local governments: one method, several approaches. Eur Account Rev 18(4):765–807
Pina V, Torres L, Royo S (2010) Is e-government promoting convergence towards more accountable local governments? Int Public Manage J 13(4):350–380
Pollitt C, Bouckaert G (2000) Public management reform: a comparative analysis, 2nd edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Pollitt C, Van Thiel S, Homburg V (eds) (2007) New public management in Europe: adaptation and alternatives. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke
Portney K (2013) Taking sustainable cities seriously. Economic development, the environment, and quality of life in American cities, 2nd edn. The MIT Press, Cambridge
Royo S, Yetano A, Acerete B (2011) Citizen participation in German and Spanish local governments. A comparative study. Int J Public Admin 34(3):139–150
Saglie J, Vabo SI (2009) Size and e-democracy: online participation in Norwegian local politics. Scand Polit Stud 32(4):382–401
Shand D, Arnberg M (1996) Background Paper. In: Responsive government: service quality initiatives. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris
Torres L (2004) Trajectories in public administration reforms in European continental countries. Aust J Public Admin 63:99–112
Torres L, Pina V, Acerete B (2006) E-governance developments in European Union cities: reshaping government’s relationship with citizens. Governance Int J Policy Admin 19(2):277–302
United Nations (2012) United Nations e-government survey 2012. E-government for the people. UN, New York
Yetano A, Royo S, Acerete B (2010) What is driving the increasing presence of citizen participation initiatives? Environ Plan C Govt Policy 28(5):783–802
Zahran S, Brody SD, Vedlitz A, Grover H, Miller C (2008) Vulnerability and capacity: explaining local commitment to climate-change policy. Environ Plan C Govt Policy 26(3):544–562
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Acerete, B., Yetano, A., Royo, S. (2016). Evaluating Public (e-)Information Provision. In: Aichholzer, G., Kubicek, H., Torres, L. (eds) Evaluating e-Participation. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25403-6_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25403-6_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25401-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25403-6
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)