Empirical study of user acceptance of online political participation: Integrating Civic Voluntarism Model and Theory of Reasoned Action

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Abstract

Factors affecting e-democracy adoption were identified using Civic Voluntarism Model (CVM) and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) which incorporated political culture and perceived e-democracy outcome. Survey instrument was designed based on these theories and was administered to a convenient and randomly selected sample in Nigeria. The variance-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach was used to evaluate the measurement and structural models. Partial Least Square Algorithm (PLS-Algorithm) and bootstrapping were executed to estimate the significance and test the validity of the SEM components. Findings reveal the imperative of democratic political culture orientation of ordinary citizens in developing positive attitude towards the acceptance and use of e-democracy system while political awareness, political efficacy, and recruitment networks are found to be significant predictors of intention to use e-democracy. These predictors can be stimulated through dedicated massive political orientation programs and enlightenment campaigns by the government in partnership with civil society organizations, religious associations, academic institutions, interest groups, the media and traditional institutions on the benefits of e-democracy to a country's political system.

Introduction

The pivot of democracy is collective participation. A successful democracy is constituted by an engaged and informed citizenry (Caldow, 2004). In time past, elected representative was a sufficient means for citizens to participate in government. This has changed for reasons such as diversity of citizens' cultural heritages, values, needs, apathy, lack of openness and accountability, and mistrust (Smith, 2003). The desire for a more responsive government has however, led to citizen's greater political participation (Tolbert et al., 2003, Hobolt and Klemmemsen, 2005). Citizens now want other and broader, more accessible and direct pathways of involving in governance and policy decisions. But this could not be achievable through the platforms offered by the traditional models of political engagement.

The use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to enhance citizens' political participation has been identified as a solution to the problems of representative democracy, particularly, the disconnection between representatives and citizens and the decline of political interest among the populace (Kang and Dugdale, 2010, Coleman and Gotze, 2001). Electronic participation (e-participation) is the use of Internet and mobile technologies to enhance democratic governance (Zissis, Lekkas, & Papadopoulou, 2009). E-democracy is the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and strategies by “democratic sectors” within the political processes of local communities, states/regions, nations and on the global stage (Clift, 2004). Macintosh (2004) defines e-democracy as the use of ICTs to engage citizens, support the democratic decision-making processes and to strengthen representative democracy. The essence of e-democracy is to provide wider access for dissemination of information and to promote communication and deliberation among the democratic actors. Series of technological innovative tools have been put in place to foster citizens' participation in political issues and most especially in policy-making (Coleman and Gotze, 2001, OECD, 2003a, DEMO-net, 2006). These among others include: e-Panels, e-Deliberative polling, e-consultation, e-opinion poll, e-referenda, e-petitioning, etc. Distinct benefits that government can derive in making use of electronic techniques for public participation are discussed by Smith (2003) and Clift (2004).

The growth and use of Internet and mobile technology have continued unabated across the globe within the last decade (Leston-Bandeira, 2007, United Nations, 2012). Most countries have leveraged on these exponential growth and have continued to find ways of utilizing ICT tools to enhance their democratic practices. In Africa, Nigeria has been referred to as the fastest growing telecommunication country. There were 200,000 Internet users in Nigeria in the year 2000 i.e., 0.1% of the country's population. By June 2011, the number had grown to 45,039,711 i.e., 26.5% of the country's population. In 2013, the number of Internet users was 57,735,862 and by June 2015, the number has hit 92,699,924 (51.1% of the country's population) (Internet World Stats, 2016).

Despite the expeditious means of reaching political decision-makers that online political participation or e-democracy offer, the sustainability and users' acceptance of online public participation remains a difficult task notwithstanding the numerous cases of e-participation project initiated by different actors in different context (Sæbø et al., 2008, Panagiotopoulos and Al-Debei, 2010). Furthermore, previous authors have argued that the problem of digital divide resulting from citizens' unequal access, lack of proper infrastructure and low adoption of technology have been argued to limit the perceived benefits of e-participation in developing countries (Rheingold, 2000, OECD, 2001, OECD, 2003b, Rodousakis and Mendes dos Santos, 2008). The question now is, what are the factors influencing citizen's intention and actual use of e-democracy platforms?

This paper investigates inherent individual (attitude) enablers and barriers to participation in e-democracy. A research model was developed using a combination of information system (IS) theory and political participation theory. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) from the IS domain and Civic Voluntarism Model (CVM) from political participation domain are found appropriate to the study of individual's intention to adopt e-democracy in resource poor setting. TRA helps to predict user's behavioral intention and CVM helps to identify the socioeconomic factors underlining civic engagement. Political ideology variable was introduced into the model to have a conclusive individual's behavioral factors.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows; Section 2 provides the theoretical background, research model and hypotheses of the research. Section 3 presents the research method and Section 4 reports the analysis of data and research findings. Section 5 includes some discussion and implication for practice while Section 6, conclusions and limitations of the study.

Section snippets

Literature review

The study of citizens' political participation has, over the years, remained germane in political discourse and scholars of political participation have developed several theories with the intention of explaining why some individuals participate in politics whereas others do not (Sanchez, 2006, Fung, 2015). Some of these theories include civic culture, Robert Dahl's Theory of Polyarchal Democracy, the standard model of political participation originated by Verba and Nie (1972), rational actor

Instrument development and data collection procedure

The research instrument was developed from existing measurement items in information systems and political science and modified to fit the research domain (i.e. e-participation). The instrument was divided into two parts: 1) theory-based items from information system adoption and political participation variables and 2) demographic variables, technology usage of respondents as it relates to online political participation, and reasons for or for not adopting e-democracy system.

Items measuring

Respondents' profile

The gender statistics of respondents was evenly distributed. The age range of respondents was 18–60 years. About half of the respondents are within ages 21–30 (53.8%). About half of the respondents (53.2%) have university degree. Tables 1 display the distribution for each of the demographic variables.

Testing the measurement (outer) model: reliability and validity

The psychometric properties of the measurement model was assessed using composite reliability, confirmatory factor analysis and discriminant validity. Table 2 reports the construct reliability

Discussion

In this study, democratic political culture and perceived e-democracy outcome were included as predictors of attitude towards e-democracy. Previous study identified the importance of democratic participatory behavior for effective public participation. As predicted, democratic political culture and perceived e-democracy outcome had significant impact on attitude towards the use of e-democracy. Democratic political culture has significant influence on the individual's attitude towards

Conclusions and limitations of the study

This study contributes both to information system and political science theory and e-participation research at local and international levels. The study integrates constructs from both information systems and political science into a comprehensive model of e-democracy adoption in Nigeria/tested using Nigeria as a case study. This integration is a contribution to both fields of study. This study was conducted using existing empirically validated measures from literature (Verba et al., 1995,

Aderonke A. Oni, holds Ph.D in MIS from Covenant University. She has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed journals, proceedings, and chapters in books. Her research interests are in: e-commerce, e-government, information systems users' behaviour and design theories for information system. She also lectures in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Covenant University, Nigeria.

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  • Cited by (0)

    Aderonke A. Oni, holds Ph.D in MIS from Covenant University. She has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed journals, proceedings, and chapters in books. Her research interests are in: e-commerce, e-government, information systems users' behaviour and design theories for information system. She also lectures in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Covenant University, Nigeria.

    Samuel Oni lectures at the Department of Political Science & International Relations, School of Social Sciences, Covenant University. He is a prolific researcher and has published in a number of reputable local and international journals. His research interest include; governance, legislature, constitutionalism, conflict and gender studies.

    Victor Mbarika, Ph.D is Full Professor and Houston Alumnae Endowed Professor at Southern University and A&M College. He is founding Executive Director of the International Center for Information Technology and Development (ICITD). His research interests include the interactions of social, cultural, and infrastructural aspects of information technology transfer to developing nations, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa; theorizing human-technology interaction and user experience research; and minorities and women in information technology areas.

    Charles K. Ayo holds a B.Sc. M.Sc. and Ph.D in Computer Science. His research interests include: mobile computing, Internet programming, e-business and government, and object oriented design and development. He is a member of the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS), and Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN). Dr. Ayo is a member of a number of international research bodies such as the Centre for Business Information, Organization and Process Management (BIOPoM), University of Westminster. http://www.wmin.ac.uk/wbs/page-744; the Review Committee of the European Conference on E-Government, http://www.academic-conferences.org/eceg/; and the Editorial Board, Journal of Information and communication Technology for Human Development.

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