E-services at the local level represent a great potential in the implementation of democratic processes and the participation of residents at the local level. With the help of information and communication technology, such cooperation between citizens and local administrations has become simpler and easier to implement. Citizens can participate in the creation of policy and to influence important decisions in their municipality with the help of e-tools that are offered on the websites of selected municipalities. However, the question still arises, to what extent are citizens interested in participating in what way? The purpose of the work is to study the guidelines, provisions, and strategies of digitization at the local level, to examine the offer of e-services on the websites of selected municipalities and, with the help of surveys, to determine the interest in using e-services in the selected municipalities among different age groups of citizens.
In the research work, with the help of a quantitative survey method, we obtained answers to what extent citizens were aware of the possibility of using e-services in their municipality and what their interest in using only these is. In two of the selected municipalities, the questionnaire was conducted entirely electronically, with publication on the municipality's website, while in the third municipality, it was conducted using social networks and e-mail.
In the thesis, we found that the citizens of all three municipalities aspire to an electronic way of cooperating with their municipality, because it is always accessible and easy. The results showed that only a small percentage of young people are ready to cooperate with their municipality, so we believe that there is still a lot of room for maneuver in the field of youth participation, which offers opportunities for the younger population, who is computer literate, to be involved in the process of e-participation. and e-democracy to a greater extent.
|