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Local politicians on-line -– a five country comparison

Soos, Gabor and Kiss, Annamaria
The mail survey of local councilors and mayors in five CEE countries, within the framework of the Indicators of Local Democratic Governance Project, contained two questions about e-mail and Internet use of local councilors and mayors. It turned out that local representatives reported going on-line more frequently than ordinary citizens. In each country more representatives use the Internet than e-mail. The ranking of countries corresponds with common expectations. Estonia, a country close in proximity to the extensively wired Northern countries, leads the five surveyed countries in the use of the new technologies: three of four local elected representatives use the Internet and three of five send and receive e-mail regularly. Bulgaria, representing South-Eastern Europe, is the least developed. Nevertheless, Bulgaria's technological lag does not seem at first sight as large as general economic indicators would suggest. This is due to the fact that Bulgarian municipalities are large, and consequently, politicians are more professional and better equipped. Central European countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) are on more or less the same, middle level. Every second local representative obtains information from the Internet and one of three uses e-mail. Age, education, professionalism, and municipality size all have an effect on the use of the new web-based technologies.
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Contributor: Tocqueville Research Center - http://www.t-rc.org
Topic: Politics and Governance
Country: Hungary
Document Type: Political Analyses and Commentaries
Year: 2003
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