How Mayors Perceive the Influence of Social Media on the Policy Cycle
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How Mayors Perceive the Influence of Social Media on the Policy Cycle Davide Giacomini 1
& Anna
Simonetto 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Information technology clearly influences the decision-making behaviour of individuals, groups, and organisations. In particular, social media and Web 2.0 technologies can affect the rationality and effectiveness of the policy cycle in the public sector. This growing influence deserves to be analysed. This work aims to understand how the influence of social media in the different phases of the policy cycle is perceived by mayors, the main decision-makers in local governments. Keywords Social media . Public sector . Local governments . Policy cycle . Accountability
Introduction The political landscape has changed a lot in the last twenty years. The Internet has played an important role in this transformation, leading to an increasing use by the government of online media such as websites, social networking sites, and blogs. These communication systems are used to promote democratic values and public trust in the public sector by helping the different levels of government respond to citizen needs. Furthermore, some of these online channels encourage citizen participation in public decisions. Social media are a new arena in which organisational legitimacy is measured (Etter et al. 2018). Yet, although there is an ever-growing literature on democratic innovations and coproduction of public services, this scholarship still shows limited interest in the role of new media (Meijer 2011).
* Davide Giacomini [email protected] Anna Simonetto [email protected]
1
Department of Economics and Management, University of Brescia, Brescia, BS, Italy
2
Department of Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, BS, Italy
Giacomini D., Simonetto A.
In the literature, several authors see in Web 2.0 and in social media the potential to ‘rethink traditional boundaries between individuals, the public, communities, and levels of government’ in ways that ‘dramatically alter how the public and government interact, develop solutions and deliver services’ (Bertot et al. 2010). Politics and public administration are based on a multiplicity of relationships that interconnect different actors. Citizens can contribute to the design, production, and delivery of the public services they receive. Despite the critical importance of these interactions in public administration throughout the policy cycle, and the growing trend for governments at all levels, national and local, to consult stakeholders on issues ranging from budgets to strategic plans of departments and agencies (Dixon 2010), they have received little direct attention from scholars. This raises several issues for local governments on how to develop and effectively implement a social media strategy both from the communications point of view and from the point of view of the impact of social media on the choices of local governments. Not being u
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