E-PARTICIPATION IN EUROPE: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Public participation is a way for stakeholders of public institutions to participate in the public decision-making process, planning, organizing, and financing activities to achieve common public goals. The research underlying this paper examines the ability of EU states to support e-participation in various ways and activities. The aim of the research is to identify the particularities of EU countries regarding e-participation and to analyze comparatively the changes that took place in the administrations of European states in the period 2010-2018. For this, EViews was applied with the ARDL model (Autoregressive Distributed Lag) to analyze both the variables and the dynamics of the relations between them in the considered period. The data on which the research was conducted were selected from the Eurostat portal, the World Bank, and the United Nations E-Government Database. The results show that during the period analyzed, in most European countries platforms and programs dedicated to cooperation and consultation between the administration, citizens, and economic agents were developed. These changes have led to a reduction in the costs of operating the administrative apparatus and a considerable decrease in administrative bureaucracy. The originality of the research lies in using the ARDL analysis model on e-participation data series in most European countries when ICT (information and communication technology) had a major impact on accelerating the cooperation of administrations with their stakeholders. Good e-participation practices identified in European countries show that efforts to integrate information and communication technologies into state administrations and their relations with citizens are needed and generate major economic and social benefits. States can take models from each other and adapt good practices to their specific realities. Research has highlighted the real need to accelerate this process in Europe, for effective communication between state administrations and between them and their stakeholders.