Citizens’ e-participation on agenda setting in local governance: Do individual social capital and e-participation management matter?

Although a growing body of literature has touted e-participation as a means of facilitating greater citizen participation in policy decision-making processes, little is known about the driving forces behind citizens’ use of e-participation. Based on a literature review of social capital and citizen participation, this study develops and tests a model proposing that three dimensions of social capital and three dimensions of citizen participation management should be positively associated with e-participation in agenda setting. Using data from a Korean e-participation survey conducted in 2009, we found that citizens tend to be more active e-participants when they have greater trust in government and are weakly tied to offline social groups. We also found that citizen participants’ perception of government responsiveness to their input can facilitate their e-participation. The study findings imply that local governments should pay more attention to the function of public trust in local government and provide quality feedback in response to citizen input. They should also be sensitive to how the social factors of e-participants can facilitate involvement in agenda setting.     

领导干部政绩评价中公民参与的问题研究

我国公民对领导干部政绩评价仍处于"有限参与阶段",究其原因是公众自身能力有限,参与的信息不对称,参与的广度和深度不够,参与机制理论滞后。鉴于此本文提出了以下四点对策:提高公民的参与能力、加强政府与公民的沟通、发展第三部门、增加政府管理透明度、完善公民参与机制。     

政府绩效评估中公民参与的价值分析

政府绩效评估是政府进行管理的有效手段,政府绩效评估的有效运行离不开公民参与。本文从提高政府绩效评估水平、建设服务型政府以及保障公民权实现三个方面对政府绩效评估中公民参与的价值取向及重要功能进行了分析。     

Social indicators and urban policy analysis

Although there are natural ties among the social indicators movement, productivity studies and urban service delivery research, these have been overlooked. This paper presents a systems framework involving policy variables, performance variables, state variables, citizen behaviors and citizen perceptions, and linking government with citizen subsystems. Four hypotheses derived from this framework are presented for assessing citizens' perceptions of local government performance and of the state of their municipality. Ultimately such a framework should be useful for setting local policy and evaluating its impact.     

Exploring the antecedents of municipal managers’ attitudes towards citizen participation

Meaningful and representative citizen participation depends greatly on administrators’ attitudes. This study examines antecedents of municipal managers’ attitudes towards citizen participation based on their perceptions of its likely contributions and costs. Using data from two American states – New Jersey and Pennsylvania – the research found that a manager’s professional identity and knowledge of successful peer group practices involving citizens influenced both perceptions. In addition, the research found that institutional factors such as red tape and city council diversity influenced a manager’s perceptions about the cost of citizen involvement. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

公众参与城市规划的态度分析与政府责任——以苏州市和扬州市为例

公众参与城市规划的广度和深度是和公众的参与态度紧密相连的。公众参与规划的态度或积极或消极。根据苏州、扬州两地城市调查结果分析,以及从政府与公民的互动关系角度看,要促使参与城市规划的公众由消极的参与者向积极的参与者转变,城市政府须在学术界已提出的信息公开、增加参与路径、培育公众自治组织等措施之外,还应承担起完善公众参与制度、回应公众利益诉求、善待积极参与者的职责。     

Citizen Participation in Urban Governance in the Context of Democratization: Evidence from Low‐Income Neighbourhoods in Mexico

Participation has recently been subject to renewed attention and critique in the context of neoliberal urban governance. This is especially relevant in countries where decentralization and democratization in the context of neoliberalism have led to increased promotion of local‐level participation. This article suggests that current critiques of participation's potential for democratic citizen engagement in a neoliberal context would benefit from further reflection on how participation is implemented in contexts, particularly the global South, where neoliberalism and democracy may be understood differently. Different ‘cultures of engagement’ in specific settings suggest that understandings and practices of participation draw on different traditions, including corporatism and self‐help. This article seeks to add to the debate by exploring the socio‐spatial consequences of participation structures in low‐income neighbourhoods in a provincial Mexican city. Based on qualitative research in two low‐income neighbourhoods in Xalapa, Mexico, it examines how the provisions of the local citizen‐participation framework compare with residents' experiences of it. Formalized conceptions of participation, framed as involvement in service provision, interact with and shape residents' activities in developing their neighbourhoods. This has consequences for urban development there, including the reflection and reproduction of social and spatial marginalization.     

Models of democracy in spatial investments

Governance regarding spatial investments meets or even creates institutional tensions that process management finds difficult to cope with. Traditional democracy is confronted with new ways of policy making. New practices include multi-level governance, public?–?private partnerships and citizen participation. Central government and parliamentary control have to adapt to such practices. This article studies institutional tensions in two cases of spatial investment, using representative and participatory democracy as models of political regime and policy implementation. The analysis also links governance to characteristics of space. The authors make recommendations to combine ‘representative’ and ‘participatory’ elements of governance in a way that reduces institutional tensions in processes of spatial investment.     

Foreign involvement in the Hungarian economy: its impact on human resource management

This paper explores the role human resource management (HRM) has taken in Hungarian firms since the country moved towards a market economy. Three sources of data (a questionnaire of 165 international joint ventures, interviews with six senior foreign representatives and observations of forty client firms) provide an in-depth view of the transitional economy. Multinational corporations' (MNC) participation in Hungary is evolving through deeper managerial involvement and greater capital commitment. This evolution affects their headquarters' role in setting their local HRM policy. The greater the foreign participation of the MNC, the more the MNC influences the HRM policy of the local organization. The status of the five major HRM activities (planning, staffing, compensation, training and employee relations) is described against the backdrop of the transition from socialism to capitalism using the transition's three basic elements: price and market reform, restructuring and privatization and redefinition of the State's role.     

低碳建筑技术创新参与主体博弈及激励机制研究

高能耗工业化进程随着世界能源日益紧张趋势逐渐出现瓶颈,发展低碳经济、推行低碳技术创新无疑是应对全球变暖、减少能耗的一种最佳途径。本文分析了建筑产业各参与主体的基本关系,利用信息经济学委托代理理论,就建筑企业在执行低碳技术创新政策时项目业主、政府和监管机构的博弈关系及效用,探讨了建筑企业的风险承担和政府监管力度的影响因素和各主体参与合谋的形成条件。最后给政府发展低碳建筑技术创新激励机制、监管机制和打击合谋方面提供了积极的建议。     

公共事务治理中的公民参与——以广东“无假药社区”建设为例

地方公共事务治理越来越离不开公民积极有效地参与。通过对广东省"无假药社区"建设的调查发现,公民参与公共事务治理的意识在不断增强,同时也面临着参与渠道狭窄、参与方式被动、参与内容单一和效能感不高等突出问题。因此,培养公民参与公共事务治理的意识和能力,完善公民参与公共事务治理的渠道与环境,创新公民参与公共事务治理的制度和机制,是提升地方公共事务治理绩效的重要课题和必然路径。     

A Missing Citizen? Issue Based Citizenship in City-Regional Planning

City regions are significant sites of economic development, policymaking, and everyday living. Yet in many countries they are weakly institutionalized and therefore lack established democratic practices. This article is based on a study exploring citizen participation in city-regional planning in Finland, where traditional participatory means have largely failed to invite and involve citizens. The analysis approaches city regions relationally, as evolving processes with a changing spatial shape and scope. Through the notion of lived citizenship, including the dimensions of status, practices and acts, the article reveals how the dominant ideas of citizenship in city-regional planning hide from view elements that are significant for citizen participation. Whereas people's rights to participation can largely be fulfilled on a territorial basis in municipalities and states through legal membership in political communities, in the context of weakly institutionalized city-regional planning such status-based forms of participation are typically not available. This vagueness has created an image of a missing city-regional citizenry, which the article sets out to challenge and rework through the notion of issue-based participation as lived citizenship.     

Determinants of e-participation in the citizens and the government initiatives: Insights from India

The paper attempts to examine the determinants of two types of citizens' e-participation – initiated by the citizens and the government. The factors of e-participation were delineated from a review of democracy and e-participation literature and a regression model was developed. On the basis of 407 responses collected through an online and offline survey among the Indian participants, the model was tested. The analysis showed that the citizens' participation efficacy and values determine e-participation of both types. For the citizens' initiatives freedom to participate and legal support for the participation efforts were also the determining factors. The extant research on types of e-participation services is inadequate. The paper attempted to fill the gap and contributes in i) explaining the importance of facilitating multiple stakeholders' initiatives for improved citizens' participation ii) differentiating determining factors among e-participation initiatives and iii) suggesting policy recommendations for successful e-participation initiatives. The future research can focus on determinants for collaborative service initiatives from the citizens and government.     

Obstacles and solutions on the ladder of citizen participation: a systematic review

This article presents a systematic review of the English-language empirical literature about citizen participation to identify the obstacles to its implementation and the most successful ways to address them. Three sets of variables seem to impact effectiveness: contextual factors, including information asymmetries and public officials’ attitude; organizational arrangements, including community representation criteria and process design; and process management patterns, including group dynamics and collaboration quality. Two recommendations stem from our analysis: internalize decisions in organizational procedures, and establish ongoing interactions between government bodies and their stakeholders. We conclude that half-hearted engagement is unlikely to lead to successful citizen participation.     

市民利益平衡下的城市设计导则的运作机制

新的社会环境下,适应社会利益主体多元化的社会发展格局是城市设计导则实施其控制引导城市规划、建设活动的理念、方法和效果的核心.论文通过对我国城市设计开发中各个"参与方"的动机分析,就城市设计导则的编制到实施的各个阶段作了系统的归纳,提出导则编制应以市民利益平衡为出发点,注重公众参与,明确政府部门的权责关系;结合我国规划编制体系现状,强调了以利益平衡为宗旨下的设计导则实施机制的可操作性思路和方法.     

公众参与对政府审计腐败治理效果的影响研究——基于国家治理视角的实证分析

十九大报告中提出打造共建共治共享的社会治理格局，其中公众参与是重要的组成部分。事实上，我国政府一直以来都在强调公众参与在社会主义民主政治体系中的作用，尤其在反腐败以及国家监督领域。基于此，选择国家监督体系中的政府审计对腐败的治理作为研究情境，以验证现阶段公众参与在其中的作用。实证检验结果发现：相对于公众参与程度低的地区，在公众参与程度高的地区，政府审计的预防功能和抵御功能能够更好地发挥腐败治理作用，而政府审计揭示功能对腐败的治理作用在两组之间并无区别。     

Resistance of Public Personnel to Open Government: A cognitive theory view of implementation barriers towards open government data

Open government has become an important topic in democratically developed societies. Its key aims are to increase transparency, citizen trust and public participation. Against this background, the article focuses on perceived barriers opposing the introduction of open government data. On the basis of cognitive theory and a literature review, the essential factors that impede public servants in implementing open government data are conceptualized and summarized in a model. The perceived risk-based attitude of public servants is identified as the main barrier. Other significant obstacles include perceived legal barriers, perceived hierarchical structuring of authorities, perceived bureaucratic decision-making culture and perceived organizational transparency.     

Participatory democracy and political opportunism: municipal experience in Italy and Spain (1960–93)

The relationship between local scale and participatory democracy is one of the main issues of normative theory of democracy. This article tries to show that the development of this model of democracy also depends on institutional factors. In his political opportunism hypothesis the author proposes that local governments have to develop adaptive strategies to make electoral victory compatible with offers of opportunities of participation: on the one hand, because the parties have to make government or opposition action compatible between local and central political levels; on the other, because the supply of participation presupposes the redistribution of power among local interest groups and the possibility of imposing limits over local government actions. To test this hypothesis, the author analyses data on citizen participation among Italian and Spanish local governments by qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). In conclusion, the author argues that political opportunism could limit local democratization and new urban governance initiatives. La relation entre échelle locale et démocratie participative constitue l'une des grandes questions de la théorie normative de la démocratie. L'auteur tente de montrer que l'élaboration de ce modèle de démocratie dépend aussi de facteurs institutionnels. Dans son hypothèse d'opportunisme politique, il propose que les gouvernements locaux mettent au point des stratégies adaptatives afin de rendre toute victoire électorale compatible avec les possibilités de participation offertes, d'un côté parce que les parties doivent rendre compatibles les actions du gouvernement ou de l'opposition entre les niveaux politiques local et central, de l'autre parce qu'une participation potentielle présuppose la redistribution du pouvoir entre groupes d'intérêt locaux et la capacité d'imposer des limites aux actions gouvernementales locales. Cette hypothèse est testée par l'analyse de données sur la participation des citoyens dans les gouvernements locaux italiens et espagnols via une analyse comparative qualitative. La conclusion déduit qu'un opportunisme politique pourrait entraver des initiatives de démocratisation locale et de gouvernance urbaine originale.     

Dual organizational identification among Japanese expatriates: the role of communication in cultivating subsidiary identification and outcomes

Dual organizational identification is significant for the success of multinational corporation (MNC) employees. This study has extended this research area by examining expatriates of Japan-based MNCs. In addition, this study has extended the existing identity-matching principle by incorporating a communication perspective. It investigated the antecedents and outcomes of subsidiary identification. Self-report survey data from 159 Japanese expatriates in the USA were analyzed. The results indicated the significance of local language proficiency in the development of identification with the subsidiary. In addition, local identification was the predictor of expatriates' adaptation to the subsidiary. Furthermore, the results showed that local organizational identification is related to their stress level in international assignments. These results also supported the growing view of situation-oriented identification. The follow-up interviews reinforced these results.