Building accountability in websites of local councils: a case study in Santa Catarina (Brazil)

Abstract

Website is considered a technology capable of providing conditions for building accountability in the public sphere. However, the use of websites for this purpose needs empirical research, particularly regarding the Local Councils, considering that research has been developed on the executive branch of public sphere. The objective of this article is to investigate the conditions of accountability in the Local Councils’ websites. To do this, 17 websites of Local Councils of towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants in the state of Santa Catarina, in the Brazilian’s South region, were observed. The model of analysis took into account three dimensions: accountability, transparency and the willingness of citizen participation/interaction according to three levels: low, medium and high capacity. The majority of findings reveals a medium capacity of websites to promote conditions for building accountability. The findings stress a high capacity of transparency, which can be considered the most valuable result. On the other hand, as far as interaction/participation is concerned, a low capacity was identified in the websites as a whole.