Abstract
AbstractGovernments are increasingly implementing smart and digital approaches to promoting citizen participation. However, whether online participation platforms are tools that improve inclusivity in citizen participation remains underexplored. To address this gap, this article focuses on the role of recruitment messages and their effect on participation in an online participation platform by gender and age. A field experiment with a neighborhood census sample (N = 6,066) shows that online participation dips for younger and older citizens and is equal among women and men. For the age groups between 60 and 75, differences in the control and intervention recruitment messages significantly impacted participation. These findings can help public managers tailor recruitment strategies to facilitate inclusive participation and represent a first step toward learning what types of messages are effective for whom.
Highlights
Governments are increasingly implementing smart and digital approaches to promoting citizen participation
We find that women and men participate on the platform, suggesting that online platforms can be inclusive with regard to gender
We find that recruitment messages can affect whether citizens participate in online platforms and that this effect differs between sociodemographic groups
Summary
Governments are increasingly implementing smart and digital approaches to promoting citizen participation. For the age groups between 60 and 75, differences in the control and intervention recruitment messages significantly impacted participation. These findings can help public managers tailor recruitment strategies to facilitate inclusive participation and represent a first step toward learning what types of messages are effective for whom. Through the use of new technologies, citizen participation can become adaptable, mobile, and broadcastable at an unprecedented capacity (Ansell and Miura 2020) These features of online participation platforms give citizens the opportunity to participate at their own convenience and from their own homes, thereby lowering barriers to participation and possibly improving the inclusivity of citizen participation (Robbins, Simonsen, and Feldman 2008). Online participation platforms that embody these features may be able to overcome acknowledged challenges for citizen participation, such as low turnout rates and the lack of representativeness of participants (Ebdon and Franklin 2006)
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