Exploring the ICT Capabilities of Civil Society in Sub Saharan Africa

Civil society is argued to have been the most significant force of many forces that eradicated entrenched authoritarianism in Africa, in the early 1990s, ushering most of these countries to multi-party democracies. And yet after such accomplishment, many of these new democracies have receded to undemocratic practices. With weak economies, civil society faces many challenges in resource mobilization and in mobilizing the masses for national causes. Information communication technologies, or ICTs, are increasingly being seen as an aid to the mobilization and organization challenges of civil society. However, advanced ICT capabilities are mostly in developed countries where civil society is already strong. Using e-governance as a proxy measure for ICT capabilities for civil society, this chapter conducts an exploratory study using secondary baseline data collected by international institutions on Sub Saharan Countries. The relationship between ICT capabilities and the several civil society development indicators (press freedom, civil liberties, and various other variables) is investigated. Later, the Nation of Zambia (a country with moderate ICT capabilities in the region) is used for a qualitative case study to explore how ICT capabilities and various contextual issues influence ICT applications by civil society organizations to enhance operational capabilities such as collaboration and mobilization efforts.

Issues of Digital Disempowerment and New Media Networking (NMN) in Relation to E-Government

Emerging media technologies are increasingly reconfiguring the public sphere by creating new spaces for political dialogue. E-democracy (digital democracy) and e-government can be usefully served by these emerging technologies; however, their existence does not automatically equate to increased political participation. There is still a need to develop specific and theoretically-oriented approaches to a newly reconfigured public sphere. Employing a structurational perspective, this essay addresses the relationship between political participation, emerging media, new media networking, and e-democracy. While new media networking increases the potential for political participation, depending on various factors such as access, usage and skills, the potential exists for increasing disempowerment as well. The chapter concludes with recommendations for the use of new media networking in ways that enhance e-democracy.

Challenges of e-Disclosure in Romanian Local Public Authorities

There is a growing pressure on governments to broaden the scope of their financial responsibilities from accounting to accountability. Therefore, local public authorities (LPA) must provide clear, understandable and reliable information and should increase their transparency as part of their policy of good governance practice. Starting from the international context of good corporate governance characteristics, this chapter examines the implication level of the Internet in Romanian LPA as a tool of transparency improvement for the citizen’s use. Due to the pivotal role played by citizens in participatory governance, the chapter analyzes the information disclosed by LPA websites focusing mainly on the financial information, as the financial resources have a special role in the local development and represent the base for a prompt reply to the citizen’s needs. The final part proposes a Romanian LPA good e-governance model as well as e-disclosure improvements for citizen’s trust in LPA information.

The Role of Trust in the Global Acceptance of E-Government

Throughout the world, the number of e-government applications enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT) is proliferating. Some of the newer applications allow for interaction between government officials and its citizenry. As a result, the concept of a public sphere and e-democracy is becoming more of a reality. In all of these applications, one would expect that the level of trust within the society would be an important factor in determining the level of adoption. Using cross-country data from 140 countries, this empirical study extends past research by examining the impact of trust on the level of e-government where national diversity is used as a proxy of trust within a nation. The major empirical finding of this research shows that, even after controlling for the level of economic development and other socio-economic factors, trust as measured by ethnic and religious diversity, was a significant factor affecting e-government usage.

Habermas, Networks and Virtual Public Spheres

This chapter examines Habermas’ conceptualization of the public sphere as it applies to a non-Western context, in Bangalore City, India. It provides examples of how Information and Communication Technologies are being used to empower ordinary citizens to participate in local governance, though deep digital divides persist. The chapter highlights problematic aspects of using technologies to promote better governance in the face of pervasive asymmetries in access to resources, power to leverage networks, and in levels of civic competencies. Drawing on the capabilities approach, it argues that there is need for a blended model of deliberative ‘e-democracy’ that does not privilege online venues and interactions, but employs technologies in strategic combinations with existing civic networks to improve governance in developing countries.

Introduction

As the second decade of the twenty-first century begins, information and communication technology has brought about significant changes in the way that people participate in political discourse and engage in civil society. This has led to a surge in scholarly interest in virtual public spheres, or the deployment of network structures to advance public discourse with the goal to influence political outcomes. This book brings together international scholars to analyze the impact of ICT on civil society, and in particular, the transition from e-government to e-democracy that is facilitated by virtual public spheres. Contributions to this book address several important issues ranging from the conceptual development of virtual public spheres to the challenges facing e-participation and e-government efforts. Several contributors to this book touch upon the conditions needed to facilitate e-democracy and the challenges confronting e-democracy efforts in developing countries. A little explored area of e-government, e-administration, is correctly identified by several chapters as potentially making contributions to e-democracy and virtual public spheres.

Making Room for E-Government through Succession Planning

Few innovations have more impact on government’s work culture and the delivery of public services than e-government. E-government is a global phenomenon that is much researched, but researchers often neglect to research the demands it places on the human resources, the administrative infrastructure, and training and development. There is very little written on e-government and why it matters in succession planning. Those who design and implement well executed e-government systems need technological and culturally relevant competencies to make e-government responsive to e-citizens. In addition, there is no shortage of articles on government budget overruns tied to IT projects. The rush to have needed technologies has outpaced recruitment and training strategies to manage the technology infrastructure that makes e-government work. The infrastructure of e-government includes concepts tied to the provision of a seamless flow of services, logical one-stop-shops, efficiency, and an ability to do more with less. These concepts, however, will not support e-government indefinitely without adequate succession planning. The succession planning for this year and beyond must include training, maintaining and transitioning employees in a world where technical competencies need to be addressed and citizens clamor for more direct involvement. Succession planning can train employees to create a work culture that promotes accountability, transparency, efficiency, and build an appreciation for a competent representative bureaucracy. Succession planning, more than any other tool, can tap into the diversity pipeline, something that could narrow the digital divide. Human resources in the public sector faces fierce competition for talent. Talent is recruited nationally and internationally. Thus the public service is at risk if it persists in holding onto 20th century technology and 20th century cultural world-views.

Setting the Foundation for E-Democracy in Botswana

The process of establishing appropriate institutional frameworks and information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure backbones to support future development of e-democracy is not an easy task. Botswana has started building its e-democracy institutions as it accords citizens the opportunity to participate in the democratic process using appropriate ICT platforms out of the realization that participatory democracy is crucial in placing a country at a competitive edge in the contemporary global socio-economic value chains. Towards this goal, the first initiative has been the establishment of the e-government taskforce team, which has been mandated with the development of an e-government strategy commensurate with Botswana’s local context. The establishment of the e-government taskforce team has been done in tandem with putting in place appropriate ICT infrastructures and legal, institutional, or regulatory frameworks. This chapter presents an exploratory study that aims to discuss the different interventions that are being put in place by the Botswana government and its co-operating partners as setting the foundation for implementing full-scale e-democracy applications such as e-forums and e-voting. The chapter also presents obstacles and challenges that have not been met, insofar as building virtual public spheres in the realm of participatory e-democracy in Botswana is concerned. Attention is given to how virtual public spheres should be used as collaboration and networking platforms both in the private and public sectors of Botswana. It is anticipated that the different approaches that have been employed by Botswana towards this course may prove useful to other emerging nations who may have intentions of implementing ICT infrastructure and encouraging virtual public spheres as a means to building viable e-democracy.

Conceptualizing E-Participation in the Public Sphere

This chapter reviews the current understanding of the role of e-participation in democratic processes, in particular emphasizing the deliberative aspects of participatory democracy and the factors that impinge on successful participation initiatives. It considers what lessons can be learnt, if any, from related aspects of e-government and from e-business, in order to refine the concept of e-participation. The chapter concludes that e-participation has a role to play in a modern society where the Internet is increasingly the medium of choice for social communications. However, e-participation projects need to be appropriately developed so that they truly engage the citizenry and encourage meaningful participation in deliberative facets of democracy.

Perspectives on E-Government in Europe

The e-government scene in the EU is undergoing profound changes. The gradual increase in online availability of services has now reached a point where new challenges are appearing, such as trust-building, increasing citizens’ confidence and the use of existing services, as well as the need for new more efficient e-inclusion policies. Citizens of today have new demands which require new responses, also in terms of enhancing the participatory process. ICT and e-government have an important role to play in this respect.