E‐participation Opportunities and the Ambiguous Role of Corruption: A Model of Municipal Responsiveness to Sociopolitical Factors

• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13049
• Author: Alex Ingrams,Hindy Lauer Schachter

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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Abstract: Municipalities ostensibly scale the ladder of e-participation improvement to gain legitimacy. However,

research has not yet addressed how e-participation initiatives are affected by serious legitimacy concerns such as

corruption. One municipal response to corruption is to use e-participation offerings as a remedial effort to gain citizen

trust, but window-dressing strategies might also be used. In this article, the authors attempt to make sense of this

ambiguity by hypothesizing that the effects of perceived corruption on e-participation offerings depend on the type of

e-participation as well as the level of local social capital and local public accountability demand. Analysis of data from

104 municipal websites in South Africa between 2013 and 2017 reveals support for two moderation mechanisms: (1)

a positive remedial response to corruption in the presence of strong social capital and (2) a negative avoidance response

to corruption in the presence of high demand for accountability.

Evidence for Practice

• E-participation tools are a viable way for municipal managers to tackle corruption.

• Selection of tools for one-way or two-way interaction should be based on careful consideration of citizen

capacity and demand rather than a blanket approach.

• High levels of e-participation offerings depend not only on physical resources such as financial resources and

internet access but also on social capital and public demand for accountability.

• Building social capital is a good long-term strategy for preventing corruption and creating sustainable

e-participation engagement.

Alex Ingrams

Tilburg University

Hindy Lauer Schachter

New Jersey Institute of Technology

E-participation Opportunities and the Ambiguous Role of

Corruption: A Model of Municipal Responsiveness to

Sociopolitical Factors

This article explores the role of corruption as

a factor in local government e-participation

development. Today, government interest

in citizen participation is growing across the globe

(Bingham, Nabatchi, and O’Leary 2005; Lee, Chang,

and Berry 2011; Vigoda 2002). Some of the debates

on the merits and challenges of participation have

moved into electronic territory as jurisdictions have

adopted information and communication technologies

(ICTs) both to inform and to interact with citizens

(Barber 1998; Bovens and Zouridis 2002; Kakabadse,

Kakabadse, and Kouzmin 2003). Scholars have tried

to find out what variables explain e-participation

adoption, but so far studies do not convincingly show

which variables are important (Borge, Colombo, and

Welp 2009; Zheng, Schachter, and Holzer 2014).

Further, scholars have yet to solve the problem posed

by Arnstein (1969) in her theory of the “ladder of

participation”: that a jurisdiction’s motivations for

participation adoption can range from remedial (to

help address policy problems) to inauthentic. Arnstein

describes the latter motivations as nonparticipation—

manipulation and therapy—and tokenism—the

placation of citizens’ wishes or consultation without

ceding power. The problem created by jurisdictions

offering empty participation rituals rather than

opportunities to affect outcomes remains acute and

gains further urgency as policy makers continue to

embrace new forms of online participation.

So far, however, researchers addressing Arnstein’s

theory have not empirically examined which variables

correlate with jurisdictions seeking to manipulate

citizens and which correlate with governments

offering authentic involvement opportunities.

Instead, many studies have offered normative advice

on how administrators who want to offer authentic

participation should proceed (e.g., Bryson et al. 2013;

King, Felty, and Susel 1998). Others have tried to

revise the ladder to include additional concepts such

as collaboration (Cooper and Bryer 2007). This article

is one of the first to offer an analysis exploring how

several social variables affect where a jurisdiction’s

offerings fall on the ladder of participation—that is,

whether these opportunities constitute some type

of nonparticipation or tokenism or actually offer an

authentic participation opportunity.

Hindy Lauer Schachter is professor in

the Martin Tuchman School of Management

at New Jersey Institute of Technology. In

addition to articles in academic journals, she

has authored

Reinventing Government or

Reinventing Ourselves

(State University of

New York Press, 1997),

Frederick Taylor and

the Public Administration Community

(State

University of New York Press, 1989), and

Public Agency Communication

(Nelson Hall,

1983). With Kaifeng Yang, she coedited

The State of Civic Participation in America

(Information Age, 2012).

E-mail: hindy.l.schachter@njit.edu

Alex Ingrams is assistant professor

in the Institute of Governance at Tilburg

University. He earned his PhD in public

administration at Rutgers University–

Newark in 2017. His research focuses on

digital government transformations, theory

of public information, and government

transparency and accountability. His recent

work has focused on government adoption

of big data and algorithmic decision-making

and its impact on public sector performance.

E-mail: a.ingrams@uvt.nl

Research Article

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 79, Iss. 4, pp. 601–611. © 2019 The

Authors. Public Administration Review

published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13049.