How far from Participatory Governance? A Survey on E-Democracy in Italian Municipalities

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the direction in which digital democracy can be developed by means of an e-based government approach in the Italian Public Administration as a first step towards a participatory governance approach. In order to find the basic conditions for the future development of e-based societies, the paper analyzes the process of digitalization of the relationship between government and citizens focusing on digital citizenship in Italian municipalities. After illustrating the concept of participatory governance and introducing the current UE and Italian e-governance strategies, the concept of digital democracy along with its empirical dimensions, structuring a conceptual framework used for a nationwide survey is elaborated. In particular, the paper investigates the scale, the types of participatory instruments provided and the demand for new inclusion mediated by digital technologies at the local level. The results show the state of the art of digital democracy in Italy evidencing the demand/supply gap. At the same time, the highlight that ICT infrastructures are essentially used for information purposes at an operative level, while the participatory dimensions of the relationship, such as dialogue, participation and, most of all, deliberation, are very far from an effective e-democracy configuration. The paper highlights interesting aspects of the digital democracy in Italian municipalities and evidence some surprising peculiarities in terms of territorial gaps.