Demographical Attributes Explaining Different Stages of OG Development in Spanish Local Governments

Abstract : In recent years city governments have rethought and changed their governing routines, procedures and processes, to better understand citizens’ needs, implementing Open Government Strategies. Our study analyzes the use of technological channels available to citizens by local governments to improve transparency and citizens’ participation and collaboration. Our empirical research selected 145 Spanish local governments with more than 50,000 inhabitants. Findings show that the size of the municipality, the population density, the population age and the level of education of the inhabitants could influence on the citizen participation models implemented in sample cities. On the whole, findings indicate that the level of OG development is still low in Spanish local governments, which means that there is much room for improvement in the future if local governments want to make citizen participation true.