The Sustainability of E-Participation in Local Governments: The Case of Municipalities in Ankara


DEMİRHAN K., ÖKTEM M.

Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey Üniversitesi Sosyal ve Ekonomik Araştırmalar Dergisi, vol.25, no.44, pp.279-292, 2023 (Peer-Reviewed Journal) identifier

Abstract

This study explains the importance of the institutionalization and sustainability of e-participation initiatives in municipalities. The literature mainly focuses on the e-participation success in a specific time period but not evaluates the sustainability of this achievement. The main contribution of this research is exploring the importance of the sustainability and institutionalization of e-participation initiatives rather the success of e-participation. This study evaluates the changes in the position of municipalities’ e-participation initiatives over time in terms of sustainability and institutionalization comparing six local municipalities’ situation between 2011 and 2016. These six municipalities had the best scores in terms of e-participation in 2011 among 25 municipalities in Ankara. This study analyzes the websites because they are simple technologies not requiring much investment by municipalities for sharing information and setting communication with citizens. Moreover, the websites are useful units of analysis to make temporal comparisons because of their consistent usage for a long time.