Evaluating the quality of e-democracy processes: an empirical study in the Greek context

Abstract

Public Authorities and Government use Infor-mation and Communication Technologies(ICTs) as tools to improve interaction and communi-cation with citizens, design new ways to access and participate in Public Authority processes or public decision-making processes and share the responsibility of political decision processes, heading for a new democratic model, better than the actual i.e. the model of e-democracy. This paper analyzes e-democracy and presents the quality model to evaluate e-democracy using the framework for the quality of e-democracy i.e. a four dimensional quality framework for the delivery of e-services adjusted to the e-democracy models, and is comprised by the following dimensions: coordination, control, sharing, and transparency. The framework is validated through an empirical research conducted among Greek citizens. Additionally, the benefits of e-democracy and the obstacles to enhance its quality are identified and analyzed.