Empowering citizens' voices in the era of e-government: Implications from South Korean cases

Abstract

The rise of the Internet sparked an intense debate on the democratic potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This research illustrates how web technologies enable ordinary citizens to articulate their interests in policy processes and enhance the organizational intelligence of local governments. The two South Korean cities introduced in this article adopted internet applications that allowed citizens to contact public officials or city mayors directly, resulting in dramatic increases in online civic input into local governance. Citizens' political efficacy was encouraged both by government feedback and by the system that enabled their evaluation of the feedback. Despite the substantive contributions of the applications to local governance, formalistic responses from some public officials indicate challenges in building citizens' trust in government through the use of ICTs. To address the challenges, it is necessary to cultivate the innovative leadership of senior public mangers and develop the institutional mechanisms encouraging public officials' sincere responses to citizens' online requests.