Participatory law-making in the digital age: The case of the e-public consultation platform in Croatia

Abstract

Public consultations are one of the most often applied instruments of public participation in the process of law-making and are nowadays commonly conducted online. In Croatia, electronic public consultations (e-consultations) are implemented via the central eConsultations Portal, which was established in 2015. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the main drivers behind the introduction of the eConsultations Portal and to evaluate its effects with respect to citizen empowerment, which has been stated as one of the main formal goals of the initiative. The findings, which are based on empirical research data, point to the crucial influence of (supra)national factors and individual enablers on the introduction of the platform. Citizen empowerment, which has only partially been achieved, appears to be significantly related to the attributes of the participants themselves.