Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Online Engagement from the Grassroots: Reflecting on over a Decade of ePetitioning Experience in Europe and the UK

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Empowering Open and Collaborative Governance

Abstract

Extensive debate on Internet and formal politics has concentrated on whether authorities should focus their efforts on high-volume activities such as petitioning or crowdsourcing. Those engagement tools seem to be consistent with the ambition of many networked citizens to influence policymaking through ad hoc and mostly single-issue movements. Therefore, certain interesting questions emerge: can authorities organise their engagement activities to respond and act upon this call? Can citizens indeed influence policymaking in a few clicks? This chapter draws together material from different uses of ePetitioning tools in Europe, mainly focusing on the integrated UK experience at national and local level. The analysis suggests that those initiatives can provide valuable feedback to authorities and be effectively complemented by other forms of deeper engagement. Yet, political organisations should pay close attention on how the public views such exercises and be prepared to support participants in different ways and on a regular basis.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    In brief, those are (1) handling the engagement scale, (2) enhancing citizens’ capacity to contextualise their participation, (3) ensuring coherence within the policy making lifecycles, (4) understanding the role of evaluation and (5) demonstrating commitment by involved actors.

References

  • Best SJ, Krueger BS (2005) Analyzing the representativeness of internet political participation. Polit Behav 27:183–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blair T (2008) The e-Petition shows that my government is listening. Homepage of guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/feb/18/uk.transport. Accessed 20 Aug 2011

  • Bristol City Council (2011). Bristol petitions. http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/council-and-democracy/consultations/petitions/. Accessed 15 May 2011

  • Cabinet Office (2011). Big Society—overview. http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/big-society-overview. Accessed 15 May 2011

  • Carman C (2010) The process is the reality: perceptions of procedural fairness and participatory democracy. Polit Stud 58:731–751

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Communities and Local Government (2008) Local petitions and calls for action consultation: government response. Homepage of department for communities and local government. http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/906840.pdf. Accessed 20 Feb 2011

  • Cruickshank P, Smith C (2011a) EuroPetition monitoring and evaluation report. EuroPetition project

    Google Scholar 

  • Cruickshank P, Smith C (2011b) Understanding the e-Petitioner. Transforming Government People Process Policy 5(4):319–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutton WH (2009) The fifth estate emerging through the network of networks. Prometheus 27:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutton WH, Eynon R (2009) Networked individuals and institutions: a cross-sector comparative perspective on patterns and strategies in government and research. Inform Soc 25:198–207

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutton W, Helsper EJ (2007) The internet in Britain: 2007. Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutton WH, Helsper EJ, Gerber MM (2009) The internet in Britain: 2009. Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett RK (2006) Protest in an information society: a review of literature on social movements and new ICTs. Inform Commun Soc 9:202–224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hilton S (2006) Developing local e-democracy in Bristol: from information to consultation to participation and beyond. Aslib Proc 58:416–428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • House of Commons (2011) Proposals for debating petitions and for a public reading stage for bills. Homepage of House of Commons. http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN05884.pdf. Accessed 25 May 2011

  • Jungherr A, Jürgens P (2010) The political click: political participation through e-Petitions in Germany. Pol Internet 2:131–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Karpf D (2010) Online political mobilization from the advocacy group’s perspective: looking beyond clicktivism. Pol Internet 2:7–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krueger BS (2006) A comparison of conventional and internet political mobilization. Am Polit Res 34:759–776

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindner R, Riehm U (2009) Electronic petitions and institutional modernization. International parliamentary e-Petition systems in comparative perspective. eJournal eDemocracy Open Government 1:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindner R, Riehm U (2011) Broadening participation through e-Petitions? An empirical study of petitions to the German parliament. Pol Internet 3:1–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act (2009), Homepage of office of public sector information. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2009/ukpga_20090020_en_1. Accessed 15 Sep 2011

  • Localism Bill (2010) Localism Bill starts a new era of people power. Homepage of communities and local government. http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/newsroom/1794971. Accessed 29 Dec 2010

  • Macintosh A (2004) Using information and communication technologies to enhance citizen engagement in the policy process. In: Caddy J, Vergez C (eds) Promise and problems of edemocracy: challenges of online citizen engagement. OECD, Paris, pp 19–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Macintosh A, Malina A, Farrell S (2002) Digital democracy through electronic petitioning. In: McIver WJ, Elmagarmid AK (eds) Advances in digital government. Springer, New York, pp 137–148

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mahrer H, Krimmer R (2005) Towards the enhancement of e-democracy: identifying the notion of the middleman paradox. Inform Syst J 15:27–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller L (2009) E-petitions at Westminster: the way forward for democracy? Parliam Aff 62:162–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Misuraca G, Broster D, Centeno C, Punie Y, Lampathaki F, Charalabidis Y, Askounis D, Osimo D, Skuta K, Bicking M (2011) Envisioning digital Europe 2030: scenarios for ICT in future governance and policy modelling. European Commission, JRC, Spain

    Google Scholar 

  • mySociety (2011) mySociety. http://www.mysociety.org/about/. Accessed 15 May 2011

  • National Assembly for Wales (2011) Petitioning: bringing your issues to light, National Assembly for Wales, Petitions Committee

    Google Scholar 

  • Local e-Democracy National Project (2005) Barriers to e-democracy: local government experiences and responses

    Google Scholar 

  • Navarria G (2010) The internet and representative democracy: a doomed marriage? Internet, policy and politics 2010: an impact assessment. St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Panagiotopoulos P, Al-Debei MM (2010) Engaging with citizens online: understanding the role of ePetitioning in local government democracy. Internet, politics, policy, 2010: an impact assessment. St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Panagiotopoulos P, Moody C, Elliman T (2011a) An overview assessment of ePetitioning tools in the English Local Government. In: Tambouris E, Macintosh A, de Bruijn H (eds) 3rd international conference on eParticipation, LNCS 6847, pp 204–215

    Google Scholar 

  • Panagiotopoulos P, Sams S, Elliman T, Fitzgerald G (2011b) Do social networking groups support online petitions? Transforming Government People Process Policy 5:20–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panagiotopoulos P, Al-Debei MM, Fitzgeral G, Elliman T (in press) A business model thinking perspective for ICTs in public engagement, Gov. Inf. Q.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose J, Saebo O (2010) Designing deliberation systems. Inform Soc 26:228–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saebo O, Rose J, Flak LS (2008) The shape of eParticipation: characterizing an emerging research area. Govern Inform Q 25:400–428

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scottish Parliament (2011) The Scottish Parliament ePetitions. http://epetitions.scottishparliament.uk/. Accessed 15 May 2011

  • Seaton J (2005) The Scottish parliament and e-democracy. Aslib Proc 57:333–337

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shulman SW (2009) The case against mass e-mails: perverse incentives and low quality public participation in U.S. federal rulemaking. Pol Internet 1:111–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Skunkwork (2011) E-petitions revised proposal for Directgov, Skunkwork HM Government

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte A, Renton A, Macintosh A (2005a) eDemocracy from the top down: an evaluation of eDemocracy activities initiated by councils and government. Bristol City Council for The Local eDemocracy National Project, Bristol, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte A, Renton A, Macintosh A (2005b) e-Petitioning in Kingston and Bristol: evaluation of e-petitioning in the local e-democracy national project. Napier University, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University, West London, UB8 3PH, UK

    Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos & Tony Elliman

Authors
  1. Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tony Elliman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Information Systems Laboratory, University of the Aegean, Lymperis Building, Karlovassi, Samos, 83200, Greece

    Yannis Charalabidis

  2. , Decision Support Systems Laboratory (DSS, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechneiou 9 Str., Athens, 15773, Greece

    Sotirios Koussouris

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Panagiotopoulos, P., Elliman, T. (2012). Online Engagement from the Grassroots: Reflecting on over a Decade of ePetitioning Experience in Europe and the UK. In: Charalabidis, Y., Koussouris, S. (eds) Empowering Open and Collaborative Governance. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27219-6_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27219-6_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27218-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27219-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation