Using Information Technology to Increase Citizen Participation

The decline in citizen trust and participation in government and the growing cynicism toward political institutions over the last few decades have been widely documented. Robert Putnam’s well-known book, Bowling Alone, warned of declining levels of participation in volunteer, religious, and civic organizations, including declining levels of participation in political and governmental affairs. For a variety of reasons, citizen participation remains an elusive goal for governments at all levels. Local governments in particular face a regular challenge of engaging citizens on a range of local planning, finance, public safety, and other issues that affect them directly.

The Challenges of Citizen Participation

Citizen participation presents challenges to both local government organizations and citizens.

Public meetings and hearings are often sparsely attended, and those few who do attend are frequently the “usual cast of characters” who tend to show up for many such events. Ironically, such individuals end up having a disproportionate influence on policy discussions since theirs are often the only voices heard during the public comment portions of meetings. While this is fine for the individuals involved, it is difficult for councils, boards, and commissions to assess the representativeness of such small numbers of participants. Real-time events, like public hearings, also present logistical and scheduling challenges as local governments struggle to set meeting times and locations that will draw enough participants.

Participation is also challenging for citizens whose busy lives make it difficult to devote extra time to matters outside of their normal work and family obligations. Citizens may also lack access to the latest information to help them learn about and understand current issues. Even if such information is available, it may not always be in a form or location that is readily accessible. The formal settings found in most public meetings and hearings can also be intimidating to people who are not comfortable with public speaking. Added to these concerns is the question for citizens of whether, when they do commit the time and energy to become involved, they can have a meaningful impact on the policy-making process.

Breaking Down the Barriers to Participation

So, what can be done? How can we begin to break down some of these barriers to participation and start building stronger connections between local governments and citizens? The use of Internet and communication technologies offer some of the most promising new ways for local governments to engage and reconnect with citizens by providing greater access to information, decision makers, and decision- making processes.

E-Government and Citizen Participation Most local governments have established some type of e-government plan that typically includes both service and informational components. For various reasons, however, IT budgets have tended to favor the development and delivery of online services over the creation of online participatory opportunities. This doesn’t come as a big surprise. E-government services that result in greater efficiency and customer convenience offer measurable benefits that can directly affect the financial bottom line as well as customer satisfaction ratings. Increasing the effectiveness of local government services and reducing costs is no small matter in these days of tight budgets and initiative-driven tax limitations.

However, while new e-government services may do much to improve citizen attitudes about the efficiency of government, the expansion of citizen participation opportunities may hold greater promise for restoring trust in the responsiveness and legitimacy of government.

Just as e-government services have increased the convenience and efficiency of online business transactions with citizens, so too can Internet and communication technologies make citizen participation opportunities more convenient and accessible and thereby expand the ability of individual citizens to become more connected and involved in their communities.

Providing Access to Information

The Internet has made it possible for interested citizens to access more information about government than ever before. Most local government Websites feature links to their municipal codes, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, budgets, comprehensive plans, and the like. Some have even begun to post their council and/or board and commission meeting packets online, giving citizens access to the same information that their elected and appointed officials use to prepare for their meetings. Timely posting (and therein lies the challenge) of this type of information makes it possible for citizens to participate on a more equal footing with their elected and appointed officials.

Of course, one of the greatest benefits of providing online access to government information is that it can be accessed from almost any location, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, making it possible for individuals to access the information at a time and place most convenient for them. Greater convenience translates into increased access, which in turn helps to lower barriers to participation.

Providing access to government information through community Websites is the most common type of e-government program and is the area in which local governments in Washington and elsewhere have made the greatest strides in lowering barriers to citizen participation.

Providing “Accessible Information”

Providing convenient “access” to government information through community Websites is an essential first step to promoting greater citizen participation. However, local governments should also take steps to ensure that the information they provide is presented and organized in an “accessible” way so citizens can not only find, but read and understand it, within a reasonable period of time. This is a critical, but often overlooked, step designed to help citizens “get up to speed” on the latest issues more quickly. Think in terms of executive summaries that provide some basic context and cover the main points, while still providing access to the lengthier source documents for those who want to dig deeper.

One particularly effective approach being used by some Washington jurisdictions is to create a top-level Web page that presents information organized by issues (ignoring departmental lines), so citizens can find information about all of the most current issues in a single location. The best Websites then lead to more detailed Web pages offering a comprehensive look at each issue, including links to basic source documents, background information that provides context, meeting schedules, relevant reports, lead staff contacts, decision chronologies, and other supporting information.

E-mail Access

One of the most basic things that local governments can do to increase access is simply to post contact information for elected officials and staff on a city or county-wide directory and on departmental or other appropriate Web pages where citizens may want to submit comments and/or questions. Some cities and counties provide a single e-mail address that citizens can use to send messages to all council or commission members at the same time. Make sure you have a system in place to acknowledge receipt of, route, and respond to the e-mails you receive in a timely manner.

E-mail Newsletters and Notifications

Many cities and counties offer subscriptions on their Websites to multiple e-mail newsletters and/or issue-specific e-mail notifications. Citizens can, for example, sign up to receive an electronic version of the local government’s print newsletter, copies of meeting agendas, press releases, or updates on specific issues as new information becomes available. Issue-specific e-mail notices can be very effective in keeping citizens informed on current issues and opportunities to participate while they make their way through the policy-making process.

Online Surveys

Online surveys are one of the most common forms of Internet-based citizen participation. Although they are usually unscientific (since they represent a self-selected group rather than a statistical random sample), such surveys can provide useful feedback for policy makers and are an effective way to engage citizens on local government issues. When combined with links to related background information, they can be used as an educational tool. They may also be useful as a gateway to online discussion boards where participants can share their views with others. Be sure to post the results of past surveys so the participants and others may view them.

Online Broadcasting and Archiving of Council Meetings

Live online streaming of council meetings offers an alternative to cable TV viewing and has the added advantage of creating a video-on-demand archive. A few Washington cities offer indexed video archives that are even more convenient to use since they give online viewers the option of viewing only those portions of the meetings they are interested in. Users simply have to click on the appropriate agenda item, and the player begins exactly at that point in the meeting. The best systems display the meeting agenda with links to relevant supporting documents in an adjoining window. Such tools make council and commission meetings accessible to the public in ways that have never before been possible.

Visual Preference Surveys

A photograph truly can be worth a thousand words in the world of planning and community development policy making. The use of visual preference surveys offers a particularly effective way to engage citizens in these types of deliberations. Such tools give citizens the ability to actually see how alternative development proposals will look in the built environment using photographic images and/or three-and four-dimensional models. Some cities in Washington have combined visual preference surveys with other types of informational Web pages to create very effective and engaging citizen-participation opportunities.

Budget Calculators

Online budget calculators are interactive tools that give citizens the chance to try their hand at balancing the city budget online. These tools allow Internet users to view and control a range of budget options, allocate available revenues, and interactively see the changes resulting from their choices. Such exercises are used primarily as an educational tool for citizens who can gain a much better appreciation for the challenges local governments face during their annual budgeting process. They might also provide policy makers with useful insights into the budgetary preferences of citizens.

Online Discussion Boards or Forums

E-mail is the most common form of interactive communication between local governments and citizens, but it is limited to one-to-one communication in most instances. Another approach for facilitating citizen participation is the creation of online discussion boards or forums that allow opportunities for “one-to-many” interaction among local government officials and citizens. Websites with this feature allow citizens to participate in ongoing discussions about general or more specific community topics, depending on how the board or forum is organized.

Since online discussion boards are not constrained by the time and place limitations of real-time events, they become accessible to a wider group of potential participants. Such discussions can also take place over longer periods of time, allowing more opportunities for give and take, rebuttal, and, at least potentially, a more thoughtful and considered dialogue.

While discussion boards are relatively easy to implement, few local governments in Washington and elsewhere have adopted them. Online discussion boards have been created on a limited basis to facilitate discussions on major policy issues, most notably in connection with planning and community development projects, but use of this potentially effective citizen-participation tool is not yet widespread.

Seattle is the E-Democracy Leader in Washington

When it comes to e-democracy initiatives, the city of Seattle is the clear local government leader in the state of Washington. That may not come as such a big surprise, since it is bigger and has more money than most other jurisdictions. But there’s more to it than just deeper pockets. Seattle is one of the only cities worldwide that has established a dedicated e-democracy initiative, having set the ambitious goal of becoming “a national leader in using technology to dramatically expand civic engagement and public discourse.”

Seattle’s democracy portal combines the resources of its government television channel (the Seattle Channel) and Website to offer an impressive array of features designed to help Seattle citizens understand and participate in their local government, community, and cultural affairs. The Website organizes information by issues, providing detailed background and supporting links. For a typical issue, the Website provides:

• Background on the issue or topic and the organizations that are involved.
• Links to videos of relevant public meetings, hearings, and forums.
• Information on upcoming community meetings.
• Updates as events occur or decisions are made.
• Links to related information on the City’s and other Websites.
• Links to local news media coverage.

To get a first-hand look at Seattle's democracy portal, take a tour starting with the Seattle Channel's home page at: http://www.seattlechannel.org.

We have certainly come a long way from the days when most local government Websites were little more than online brochures. Those citizens who are inclined to participate have more resources to assist them than ever before. Convenient access to the informational resources available on most local government Websites has indeed helped to lower some of the barriers to citizen participation. However, communication between citizens and their local governments is still mostly limited to e-mail exchanges, while the potential of more interactive online participatory opportunities remains largely unexplored.

An online companion piece to this article with links to examples of how government organizations in Washington and elsewhere are using Internet and communications technologies to increase citizen engagement and participation is available on MRSC’s Website at http://www.mrsc.org/participation.htm. We welcome your suggestions on the development of this Web page. If you are aware of any other examples that we may add, please send the links to Byron Katsuyama, Public Policy Consultant, MRSC, at bkatsuyama@mrsc.org.