Can Online Forums Address Political Disengagement for Local Government?

In terms of reversing political disengagement, little empirical investigation has been conducted into whether it is beneficial to build online forums in conjunction with local government as opposed to media or community organizations. This article explores this issue and examines what forms of participatory democracy such forums can support. To conduct this research, a sample of 138 online forums was selected. This article argues that online forums built in conjunction with local government will not address political disengagement because they mainly consist of participants who are information providers, and second, such forums do not support direct democracy.