Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to depict the present situation of e-participation initiatives of Austrian municipalities and derives recommendations to further enhance the e-participation sophistication level.

Design/methodology/approach – The findings are based on hypotheses we verified against a dataset obtained from an electronic survey among all Austrian municipalities, conducted in 2008.

Findings – The technical basis for e-participation in Austria is well developed, yet accessibility of municipal web sites and the phrasing of information leaves space for improvement. E-participation in Austria is still in a nascent state and requires the convergence of technical, political, legal and socio-economic factors, which has not yet fully arrived at the municipal level.

Research limitations/implications – The raw material of the survey did not allow a qualitative assessment of e-services.

Practical implications – Change of law and reconsideration of opening hierarchical structures.

Social implications – Recommendations of implementing e-participation on municipal level.

Originality/value – Owing to the broad fragmentation of e-government strategies and relevant regulations, the detailed results of the survey are only of limited use for comparability to other surveys in this domain. The identified factors for e-accessibility and the derived measures for e-participation thereupon are a new approach and will help further research and surveys to define an e-participation assessment framework.