Local Government Websites Research Articles

Connecting with the Public: An Examination of Motivations for Improvements to Local E-Government in the United States

Local government websites have improved with respect to content and usability since their inception in the late 1990s, providing citizens with service and communications tools. But why specifically has e-government risen to its current level of capacity and capability? Due to budgetary constraints, local governments are increasingly relying on e-government tools to communicate with their constituents, collect revenue and streamline administrative services. While local government’s provision of e-communications tools for service delivery is well documented in the e-government literature, few studies have examined the factors that are responsible for growth in e-government using city- and county-level data. Furthermore, it is unclear whether utilization of e-government tools affects citizen perceptions of and connectedness with local government (Halachmi and Greiling, 2013, p. 580). The focus of this study is twofold: (1) to examine the factors that have contributed to the growth in e-government, and (2) to explore whether e-government utilization is associated with an increase in citizen connectedness with local government. The e-government literature suggests that technological advances that make local government administration more cost-efficient and operationally effective affect e-government growth (Sharif, Irani, and Weerakkoddy, 2010, p. 929; Roberts, 2011). An additional reason for growth of e-government services is the desire to foster citizen connectedness through interaction and participation—based on Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a decentralized and citizen-driven form of governance (Stillman, 1990, p. 157). In this study, I define citizen connectedness with local government as perceived citizen connection with local government. Community relations and engagement literature focused on e-government utilization finds that this digital tool has the potential to serve as a powerful vehicle with which to connect with citizens (Brainard and McNutt, 2010, pp.842 & 853; Hudson, 2011, p. 389; Omar, Stockdale, and Scheepers, 2014, p. 670). This study includes an examination of public trust, access to information, and ability to interact with government, attributes that are vital to the government-citizen relationship (Welch, Hinnant, and Moon, 2005, p. 371). These attributes of citizen connectedness with local government are related to the central tenets of Thomas Jefferson’s political philosophy that includes the ability for the public to provide input on governmental actions and the need for the government to remain open, accessible, and transparent to the public (Hoover, 1951, p. 145). Local government provision of e-government tools that citizens want to utilize is key to citizen connectedness with local government—a facet of their community relations and engagement efforts (Kim, 2015, p. 44; Paagman et al., 2015, p. 121). Jurgen Habermas’s discourse theory informs the need to improve citizens’ connection to their local governments and vet ideas through e-government channels (1984, p. 10). As a result, the optimal ideas arise as possible action items and as discussion points during active two-way communication.

Penentu transparansi pemerintah daerah: sebuah studi pada pemerintah daerah di Indonesia

We analysed transparency in 394 local government in Indonesia during 2012-2015 period using sociodemography, fiscal, institutional, and economy factors. Transparency is assessed from the result of transparency assessment on local government level from the Commission of Information for Indonesia ( Komisi Informasi Indonesia ) . We use the ratio of elder and human development index as demographic factors; fiscal capacity and leverage as fiscal factors; ideology and the level of local government head vistory as institutional factors; and unemployment level and gross domestic product as economic factors. The data is analysed using panel data regressiong. The analysis result shows that the ratio of elder has negative effect on transparency, but the level of fiscal decentralization, leverage, ideology, unemployment, and economic activity has positive effect on local government transparency in Indonesia. Meanwhile, human resource development and the level of local government head victory have no effect on local government transparency. These results imply that local government needs to increase the level of fiscal decentralization and economic activity at the local government level, as well as reducing the number of unemployment to optimize the transparency in their local government. Future research should try using another transparency measurement such as transparency in local government website and using another factor such as local government environment.

Transparency and Accountability of Local Government by Internet Financial Reporting in Ex Besuki Residency

Objective - The objective of this research to describe and explore transparency and accountability of local government in Ex Besuki Residency by Internet Financial Reporting and evaluate the implementation of the Law on Public Information Disclosure. Ex Besuki Residency is called an administration area in East Java which consists of local government Banyuwangi, Jember, Bondowoso, and Situbondo in the Dutch East Indies era. Methodology/Technique - This research is a qualitative non-interactive (non-interactive inquiry) research by using phenomenological approach. This research uses content analysis to analyze Local Government website content appearance related to Internet Financial Reporting. This research uses primary and secondary data. Primary data is in form of observation result in local government website appearance. Secondary data is in form of Internet Financial Reporting obtained by downloading on local government website. Findings - The results show there is no local government to show its Internet Financial Reporting in full. No publication of most categories of Internet Financial Reporting means reduced accessibility and understanding of Internet Financial Reporting. Novelty - The paper identifies that accountability and transparency of local governments to the central government through the State Audit Board opinion was not yet able to make local government to be accountable and transparent to the public. Type of Paper Review Keywords: Transparency, Accountability, Local Government, Internet Financial Reporting, Public Information Disclosure. JEL Classification: D82, H83.

An Evaluation Scheme for Local e-Government and Local e-Democracy: The Case of Greek Municipalities

The purpose of this study is the development of a citizen-centric framework for the evaluation of municipal websites that is validated in the context of Greek local governments. The proposed model consists of four categories, 14 factors/indices and 83 criteria. The framework incorporates the different aspects of e-government as well as e-democracy. To develop and validate the model two researches were conducted: one survey that captured citizens' opinions about the important e-government features and a website analysis to check the level of e-government sophistication of Greek local government websites. Results of citizens' survey served as input for the weighting of the model metrics. The analysis of the Greek municipal websites indicated that municipalities performed moderately in regards to the disclosure of one-way information while they scored low in the provision of online services for citizens and businesses and the opportunities they offer for citizens' interaction and participation.

An evaluation scheme for local e-government and local e-democracy: the case of Greek municipalities

The purpose of this study is the development of a citizen-centric framework for the evaluation of municipal websites that is validated in the context of Greek local governments. The proposed model consists of four categories, 14 factors/indices and 83 criteria. The framework incorporates the different aspects of e-government as well as e-democracy. To develop and validate the model two researches were conducted: one survey that captured citizens' opinions about the important e-government features and a website analysis to check the level of e-government sophistication of Greek local government websites. Results of citizens' survey served as input for the weighting of the model metrics. The analysis of the Greek municipal websites indicated that municipalities performed moderately in regards to the disclosure of one-way information while they scored low in the provision of online services for citizens and businesses and the opportunities they offer for citizens' interaction and participation.

5-227 地方自治体のWEBサイトを用いた防災教育の試み((02)専門科目の講義・演習-I)

5-227 地方自治体のWEBサイトを用いた防災教育の試み((02)専門科目の講義・演習-I)

Transparencia y rendición de cuentas de los municipios de Castilla-La Mancha

El proyecto de investigación GlobalCOM (CSO2013-46997-R) tiene como finalidad atender a la evolución del grado de transparencia en la comunicación pública digital local. Para ello, se evalúan 41 indicadores que atienden al grado de desarrollo del sistema de rendición de cuentas en los sitios web de ayuntamientos de toda España. La hipótesis de partida postula que las webs de los ayuntamientos españoles manifiestan importantes deficiencias a la hora de dar cuenta de la gestión que realizan sus gobiernos. Ello afecta al papel que estas entidades juegan como fuentes informativas para los medios de comunicación y la ciudadanía, dificultando el debate público y generando desconfianza.
 Esta comunicación presenta los resultados de la primera oleada de datos, procedentes de 33 municipios de más de 10.000 habitantes en Castilla-La Mancha, durante el primer cuatrimestre del año 2015. Los resultados confirman la hipótesis para la muestra analizada.

Pengaruh Transparansi dan Akuntabilitas Laporan Keuangan Pemerintah Daerah (LKPD) Terhadap Tingkat Korupsi Pemerintah Daerah (Studi pada Pemerintah Kota Se-Sumatera)

This study aims to demonstrate empirically the effect of the transparency and accountability of local government financial statements (LKPD) on the level of local government corruption. Tests performed on 15 city government in Sumatera.The data used are secondary data derived from the results of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on National Integrity Index of local government, the local government website, and the results of the audit The Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK RI) on the financial statements of local government in 2011 to the year 2013.This study using purposive sampling method and using a multiple linear regression analysis. The results showed that the transparency of local government financial statements (LKPD) negatively affect the level of local government corruption and accountability of local government financial statements (LKPD) positive effect on the level of local government corruption.

An Ontological Crawling Approach for Improving Information Aggregation over eGovernment Websites

E-Government applications in developing countries are still lagging behind e-Governments in advanced countries. For example, the use of information integration for Web portal content is still very limited. This paper proposes an automated approach for information aggregation over e-Government portals using ontological approach. The study uses data obtained from 10 local government Websites in the Central Java province-Indonesia. The data in the form of HTML Web document text, meta-data, hyperlinks and other rich-contents are effectively crawled. This paper focuses on the development of a crawler, which consists of two main modules, i.e., multi-tread downloader and scheduler. The use of ontology in the focused crawler producesamore effective result as compared to the Breadth First Search (BFS) approach as it reaches 37% of effectiveness in terms of the number of relevant documents downloaded.

Online sustainability information in local governments in an austerity context

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse and compare how austerity has influenced online sustainability information in Italy and Spain.Design/methodology/approach– The authors relate austerity policies to online information in order to ascertain whether austerity plays a role in the financial, organizational, social and environmental information disclosed on local government (LG) websites. The research has been conducted by analysing the websites of all Italian and Spanish LGs with more than 100,000 inhabitants.Findings– The results show that institutional and legislative pressures, as well as austerity measures, have played a relevant role in the increased production of information by LGs, although not all information is fully provided.Originality/value– The results may be of interest to managers and politicians as a stimulus to increase the flow of information. They may also be useful to policy makers, regulators and other stakeholders in order to foment environmental information.

Online sustainability information in European local governments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an analytical model that shows causal relationships between the amount and nature of information on strategies and the governance of city councils, as well as the contents of different dimensions of sustainability that are disclosed on the websites of local governments in big European cities. This model could reveal if the information is disseminated in a homogeneous and coordinated way and could improve the quality of the information, its coherence and its comparability. Design/methodology/approach – The authors have designed a questionnaire with 75 variables from the Global Reporting Initiative proposal to specify information disclosed on sustainability. The level of information about each of these variables has been gathered by consulting the contents published on the websites of the 142 local governments in the sample. Finally the authors propose a model about the cause-effect relationships between the amount and nature of the information in different dimensions of sustainability on the websites of large cities’ local governments based on the structural equation modelling methodology. Findings – The model obtained reveals that there is coherence in the sustainability information disclosed by large European cities on their websites. However, it is demonstrated that the relations between the amount of information about strategies and the dissemination of information on each of the dimensions of sustainability (economic, social and environmental) do not have the same intensity. Originality/value – The proposed model can be useful as a reference framework to structure online information supplied in a balanced and comprehensive way. This conceptual model can suggest ways for sustainable improvements based on the experience of analysed local governments.

Using social media to enhance citizen engagement with local government: Twitter or Facebook?

The social media are becoming a major channel of online interactive participation, and local governments are seizing this opportunity to enhance citizen engagement in political and social affairs. This article analyses the various forms of social media used – that is, Twitter or Facebook – by citizens in their relations with Spanish local government, to determine which of these achieves the strongest degree of commitment. We also analyse the influence of various factors on this level of commitment. The results obtained show that Facebook is preferred to Twitter as a means of participating in local government issues. Other factors that are relevant to citizen engagement are the level of online transparency, mood, the level of activity in social media and the interactivity offered by the local government website. The findings of this study contribute significantly to understanding how citizen engagement is influenced by the type of social media adopted.

Varied Responsiveness to Immigrant Community Growth among Local Governments

Immigration policy remains a hotly debated issue nationally in the United States, but the interaction of legislative gridlock on comprehensive reform and the actions of policy entrepreneurs push policy innovation into the arena of state and local governments. This article examines the intersection of immigration and local policy making, examining basic patterns of local responsiveness and apparent factors driving the response. Using the insights of existing research, including Rubaii-Barrett and Brenner, this article highlights political incorporation (e.g., Ramakrishnan and Gulasekaram) and bureaucratic incorporation (e.g., Marrow) as competing explanations in the literature. As an exploratory effort to evaluate the relative claims, this article reports the results of a document analysis of the local government Web sites for seventeen localities in the Richmond, VA, Metropolitan Statistical Area looking first at how localities are responding, second at indications of why and finally assessing whether initiative for responses occurs more at a bureaucratic or elected official level.

Factors explaining adoption and implementation processes for web accessibility standards within eGovernment systems and organizations

Local government organizations such as municipalities often seem unable to fully adopt or implement web accessibility standards even if they are actively pursuing it. Based on existing adoption models, this study identifies factors in five categories that influence the adoption and implementation of accessibility standards for local government websites. Awareness of these factors is important for stakeholders adopting and implementing web accessibility standards. To further develop and understand these factors, this study has identified and interviewed experts in the field of (organizational) accessibility. This has led to an extension of the existing models. The extended model was then validated by interviews with key stakeholders. The outcome of this study places existing adoption models in a new context. The result is an adoption model that contributes better to explaining adoption and implementation processes within eGovernment systems and organizations. This adoption model aims to better help local governments in the identification of factors influencing the actual adoption and implementation of web accessibility standards in their situation. The model explains how factors in the different categories contribute to the adoption and implementation of web accessibility standards. The model may also be applicable to the adoption and implementation of other guidelines and (open) standards within local government.

An Analysis of the Challenges and Barriers of Popularization of Government Web Sites

Government web site as a specialty requires a large amount of local knowledge for successful execution. A government web site model which has been successfully implemented in another country may not be directly applicable in the Sri Lankan context without making the requisite adjustments. Identification of challenges and barriers for popularization of government web sites are vital towards their successful deployment. In the Sri Lankan context locally generated knowledge on government web site field is lacking, which has resulted in tardy progress in local government web site developments. In order to address the above void, this research has built a model with the help of previous researches which consist of six variables. During the research the importance of each of those variables towards the sustainable development of Sri Lankan government web site capabilities will be checked. Research findings have manifested a number of strategically important focus areas for the local authorities to comply with. Process Executability of web sites has been identified as the most important and demanding factor for local web sites, even though it has not been given due consideration by most of the local web sites. The lack of sound web sites installation in the local government sector is a major constraint for effecting an e-government system in Sri Lanka.

¿Qué ocurre con la confianza cuando los gobiernos locales se vuelven virtuales? Explorando los determinantes de la confianza en sitios web municipales en Chile

Este artículo explora la formación de confianza entre sitios web de gobierno local (municipales) chilenos y sus grupos de interés, así como su relación con el gobierno local real. Los resultados muestran prevalencia de la confianza en el entorno virtual, por lo que se indagan sus determinantes. El artículo se basa en metodología mixta: encuesta a usuarios de Internet en Santiago de Chile, grupos focales y entrevistas a usuarios.

Social Media Use During Disasters

This study provides insights that can inform disaster communication management, policymaking, and theory building through a nationally representative field experiment ( N = 2,015 U.S. adults) grounded in media richness theory, information and communication technologies (ICTs) succession theory, and the social-mediated crisis communication (SMCC) model. Key findings include the following: (1) Significant main effects of disaster information source were detected on how likely participants were to seek further disaster information from TV, local government websites, and federal government websites; (2) regardless of information form and source, participants reported strongest intentions to immediately communicate about the disaster predominately via offline interpersonal forms rather than through online organizational and personal forms; and (3) regardless of information source, participants reported strong intentions to evacuate if instructed to do so by the government. These findings call for developing crisis communication theory that is more focused on how publics communicate with each other rather than with organizations about disasters and predict a wider variety of crisis communication outcomes.

Research note: Residents’ Assessment of Local Government Information Systems

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the intentions of users to use an information system by using a Web questionnaire survey (1036 local residents) conducted in March 2013. We use a theoretical extension of the technology acceptance model (TAM). The target information systems are the Websites of local governments. In order to make a comparison, we also report on the findings of user assessment of the Electronic Filing and Payment System national tax survey (e-Tax) conducted at the same time. Our results show that the combined factors of TAM, IS Success and residents’ credibility are useful for system evaluation by residents of local governments.

Factors affecting openness of local government websites: Examining the differences across planning, finance and police departments

The use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in public organizations increasingly holds the potential to improve transparency, accountability, and public participation, by providing a more effective and efficient disclosure of information to the citizens and organizations and by providing channels for interaction with the government. While transparency and interactivity features of government websites constitute two critical elements for public participation and democracy facilitated by web-based technologies, little research has been done to explain why some public organizations choose to deploy website technology more openly with these features. This paper aims to examine the managerial, organizational, and environmental factors that are related to variation in transparency and interactivity features of local government websites, which we believe are key dimensions to governmental website openness. The paper first develops a literature informed conceptual model of governmental website openness and then tests this model using data from a national survey of 850 government managers in 500 cities. The model results are compared across three different departments: community development, finance, and police department. Overall findings indicate that higher website openness is positively related to increased frequency of public participation in agency decision making and civil society influence, increased technical capacity, lower organizational control, and higher perceived usefulness of website technology. In addition, due to differences in the operating contexts of the departments, the effects of organizational control, technical capacity, environmental influences, and perceived usefulness of website technology on governmental website openness tend to differ by the type of department.

Work-family state support for the self-employed across Europe

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to map and understand work-family state support for the self-employed compared to employees across European countries.Design/methodology/approach– To map state work-family support policies for the self-employed, an overview of public childcare, maternity, paternity, and parental leave arrangements across European countries is created based on databases, local government web sites, and local experts’ country notes. Secondary data analyses are conducted in order to compare support for the self-employed to support for employees and across countries. Differences across countries are analysed from a welfare state regime perspective, which explicates assumptions about the role of the government in providing work-family state support and which is often used in research on work-family support for employees.Findings– Results show that, in general, the self-employed receive less work-family state support than employees or none at all. The extensiveness of work-family state support varies widely across European countries. Patterns of welfare states regimes, which explain variation in work-family support for employees, can also be found in the context of self-employment.Practical implications– Findings result in practical suggestions for policy makers at the European and national level to monitor policy compliance considering maternity leave for the self-employed, to increase childcare support, and to rethink the European Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan.Originality/value– Work-family state support for the growing number of self-employed has never been mapped before, although this is a very topical issue for (European) policy makers. This paper offers a starting point to contextualise and understand the way self-employed experience the work-family interface in different country contexts.