Many non-democratic countries anchor the word “democracy” in their national constitutions and everyday rhetoric, while ignoring conceptual roots of democracy its scholarly-defined procedural standards. This article argues that governments intentionally “oversell” to people, order exploit legitimizing effect embodies. can, however, only succeed if receiving side is susceptible such claims legiti...

Does the presence of an armed actor change the nature of political participation? Democratic states that experience internal conflict continue to hold elections and debates over policy, as well as effect peaceful transfers of power among successive governments. A reified distinction between “violence” and “politics” in the study of political violence and civil war has prevented scholars from co...

In democratic societies, good governance is the key to assuring the confidence of stakeholders and other citizens in how governments and organizations interact with and relate to them and how decisions are taken. Although defining good governance can be debatable, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) set of principles is commonly used. The reimbursement recommendation processes of the ...

The Polish Growth Miracle: Outcome of Persistent Reform Efforts Since the beginning of transition in 1990 from a centrally planned to a market oriented economy, the performance of Poland’s economy has been outstanding if we take GDP growth as our measure. It is not specific reforms that can explain this performance but the radical (“big bang”) reforms at the beginning of transition in conjuncti...

This study investigates the influence of citizens’ socio-economic characteristics on the presence of social media in county-level government. E-government is ostensibly citizen-driven and therefore variation in an area’s demographics would likely impact a government’s utilization of emerging technology, such as social media. Despite its transformative potential and widespread adoption, e-govern...

Advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have offered governments new opportunities to enhance citizen participation in democratic processes. The participation opportunities afforded by ICT may be particularly pertinent for youths, who are more likely to be ICT-savvy and yet are reported to show declining participation in politics. The currently increasing exclusion of yout...

Some literature on E-government has envisioned that the internet would foster a linear progression toward new, productive, and more democratic relationships between governments and citizens (Layne and Lee, 2001). Recent literature has questioned the pace at which these relationships are developing (Coursey and Norris, 2008). This chapter presents empirical results relating to citizen-government...