Social development of rules: can social networking sites benefit e-rulemaking?

Abstract

Purpose The use of information and communication technologies to provide citizens with the opportunity to give the government their feedback on the rules currently under development is termed as e-rulemaking. Forums – as the main technological tool used for this – has shown many shortcomings and cannot satisfy all the demands of e-rulemaking. Because social networking sites have shown a political impact on ground, they also might have the ability to remedy these shortcomings. This study aims to investigate the possibility of the use of social networking sites in e-rulemaking. Design/methodology/approach This research reviews democratic deliberation theory and e-rulemaking in relation with social networks that are used to develop a proposed conceptual model. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used to test the proposed model. Semi-structured interviews for mangers and surveys for citizens were used for data collection and then analyzed to draw empirical conclusions. Findings Certain variable were found to have a statistically significant impact on the dependent variable of this study. The variables include information collection, user interface, privacy, security and use of emoticons in communications. Through this, the research provides an understanding of the variables that significantly and insignificantly affect the use of social networking sites in e-rulemaking. Originality/value This research contributes with a conceptual model that outlines the influence of different variables on e-rulemaking as well as an understanding of how social networking sites could be used to improve e-rulemaking practices and citizen inclusion.