Enhancing law-making efficiency, public value or both: Case study of e-participation platform in Slovakia

Abstract

This chapter investigates the e-participation platform Slov-lex, the official governmental portal which has been an access point for everyone, including the general public, to participate in policy-making processes since 2016. We conceptualize e-participation in law-making through efficiency and public value dimensions, elaborated on the basis of traditional levels of e-participation: e-enabling, e-engaging and e-empowerment. The analysis utilizing the perspective of stakeholders reveals that the e-participation platform mainly addresses the efficiency dimension. Public value dimension is still lagging (despite the crucial influence of civil society organizations and businesses on the transparency and rule-of-law nature of the platform), particularly in the perceived influence on policy-making and access where the organizational culture of informal networks seem to be of importance. Thus, despite the new opportunities brought by ICT, the nature of the relationship between the government and stakeholders seems to not change significantly, reflecting the nature of political (non-)support.