Premium
The Participation Divide? Political Participation, Trust in Government, and E‐government in Australia and New Zealand
Author(s) -
Goldfinch Shaun,
Gauld Robin,
Herbison Peter
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8500.2009.00643.x
Subject(s) - digital divide , politics , ethnic group , government (linguistics) , e government , political science , economic growth , demographic economics , economics , information and communications technology , philosophy , linguistics , law
Drawing on 438 telephone interview surveys in Australia and 500 in New Zealand, we find evidence of a ‘participation divide’ where those participating in politics do so using a range of means, including electronic ones. Those less likely to participate in politics, are less likely to participate across all means measured. Those with higher levels of education and income and of European ethnicity are more likely to participate. We confirm the existence of the so‐called ‘digital divide’ with those that use e‐government means and those that do not, being stratified by education, ethnicity, income, gender and age. Contrary to our expectations we find that lower levels of trust in government are associated with higher levels of some types of participation, including e‐government ones.