Participatory governance of smart cities: a study upon Portuguese and Brazilian government portals

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the preliminary framework proposed by the authors for Smart Governance drivers. In this sense, the issue for research is the following: which are the requirements in order to reach participative governance in Smart Cities' government portals? In search of reply to these questions it was proposed a model for electronic participation used as base in order to evaluate and analyze the level of participation promoted in government portals. For the elaboration of this study it was used the method of monographic procedure, based on relevant literature review on democracy, e-participation and cities' governance. To this it was still added case studies, with application of a form (or inquiry aiming to confront theory with practice as occurs in government portals of the municipal level in Lisbon (Portugal) and Brasilia (Brazil). The preliminary outcomes of the inquiry revealed that the referred portals are using few technological tools, since they have been more intensely promoting aspects related to elementary levels (provision of information and online searches) and not so much aspects related to a human and responsive dimension. From these outcomes, it may be inferred that the proposed model may arise as a valuable auxiliary tool for managers in the development of public policies in smart cities, with special focus on the participative governance. Besides that, it is also valuable for fulfilling academic gaps and, mainly, for a legal / normative production on the subject.