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Size and e‐Democracy: Online Participation in Norwegian Local Politics
Author(s) -
Saglie Jo,
Vabo Signy Irene
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.2009.00235.x
Subject(s) - norwegian , elite , politics , democracy , political science , online and offline , the internet , e participation , online participation , public administration , law , philosophy , linguistics , world wide web , computer science
This study of municipal e‐participation in Norway, comprising local politicians as well as citizens, explores the impact of municipal size on online participation. First, the analyses show that the conventional predictors of offline participation also influence online participation, but the Internet encourages more activity among young people. Second, the same digital divides are generally found within the local political elite as among the citizens. Municipal size is, however, an exception. In the case of the local politicians, higher online participation rates are found in populous municipalities. This territorial digital divide is absent among the citizens. The findings indicate that the relatively high level of traditional participation in small municipalities also promote e‐participation.