INFLUENCE FACTORS ON E-PARTICIPATION IN EUROPE

On the background of the appearance and of the proliferation of the new technologies the entire society tends to change its general behaviour almost all over the world. Based on the exquisite advantage of making possible interactions in real time from any distance between different parties, governments also encouraged people to interact with them in an electronic manner, enhancing thus the so-called e-participation. While technology already changed significantly our lives and both the individual and community issues continue to diversify, e-participation seems to become the necessary next step for the development of the society. Starting with the necessity of rapid information of citizens on the community's issues, and continuing with the need for facilitating their fast consultation, based on such information, but also of decision making in due time, all these are reasons for the extensive use of information and communication technologies in citizens participation processes. However, implementing e-participation is depending on the action of several both social and economic factors such as education, availability of technology, level of development etc. and this study is proposing an analysis on the impacts of them on the e-participation.