ECePS - ERA Chair in E-Governance and Digital Public Services

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10062/71906

ECePS kodulehekülg.

ECePS is a 5-year project funded by the EU to raise the research excellence and profile of the University of Tartu in addressing three questions:

• How to harness the benefits of digital transformation of government while minimizing the associated risks and ensuring security, privacy and equal access?

• How can obstacles that prevent governments from implementing e-governance systems be overcome?

• How can researchers and practitioners best utilize the vast amounts of data that is already being generated throughout the world (via existing public e-services)?

ECePS will do so by:

• Applying predictive analytics to existing e-governance systems to suggest improvements to evidence-based policymaking;

• Examining how e-governance data can be utilized to test the effect of specific policies on behavior in real time and not through ex-post impact evaluations;

• Identifying how real-time analysis of in-motion big data can be done while protecting citizens’ privacy and security;

• Examining the impact of e-participation in democratic systems;

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 56

A Case Study of the Public Sector Digital Ecosystem in Estonia
(IEEE Xplore, 2024-05-03) Solvak, Mihkel; Lauringson, Ave
We discuss the core features of the Estonian digital ecosystem that have led to an exponential growth of in public digital service usage and started a move into the so-called post-digital society. A universal electronic identification system ensures that all citizens have default access to digital services. Uniform universal access is complemented with a distributed data exchange layer called X-Road, which allows service owners to engage in peer to peer data exchanges. Such a system has created positive dynamics from service demand (citizens) and supply (service owners) side. The secure digital identity enjoys high trust, which leads to high service usage rates and increased demand for more digitalized service. That same secure universal access and a data exchange system that is designed to create network effects, ensures a large immediate customer base for service owners, which makes data intensive digital service development faster and more cost-efficient. Finally, the frequent exchange of technologists between the private and public sector ensures rolling out of services and policies, like the e-residency program, that create new international customers for otherwise national digital services.
A theoretical framework for understanding trust and distrust in internet voting
(2022) Duenas-Cid, David
Each and every case of success and failure in the implementation of internet voting is permeated by a common element: the concept of trust. Several researchers highlighted the relevance of creating trust for the successful implementation of technology [15] and, in particular, of internet voting [13]. But the concept itself is complex and challenging to define, for one fundamental reason: it is a concept of everyday social use that has been transposed to academia. When used in academic environments, the laxity of its definition [21] is problematic, because it leaves several relevant questions unanswered. Some of them are discussed briefly in this short paper, which aims to contribute to better understanding of the concept and its implications
Adaptation of an i-voting scheme to Italian Elections for Citizens Abroad
(2022) Longo, Riccardo; Morelli, Umberto; Spadafora, Chiara; Tomasi, Alessandro
We adapt the Ara´ujo-Traor´e protocol to Italian elections, with emphasis on anti-coercion measures. In this short paper we focus on a new method for managing anti-coercion credentials for each voter.
Adopting microblogging solutions for interaction with government: survey results from Hunan province, China
(2022) Homburg, V.; Bekkers, V.; Moody, R.; Yang, Q.
Authorities in the People’s Republic of China communicate with citizens using an estimated six hundred thousand Sina Weibo microblogs. This study reports on a study of Chinese citizens’ adoption of microblogs to interact with government. Adoption results from trust and peer pressure in smaller-network ties (densely knit, pervasive social networks surrounding individual citizens). Larger-network ties (trust in institutions-at-large, such as the Chinese Communist Party, executive organizations, the judicial system, media, et cetera) are not associated with adoption of microblogging. Furthermore, higher levels of anxiety are correlated with lower levels of use intentions, and this finding underlines the impact of the Chinese authority’s surveillance and control activities on the lives of individual Chinese citizens. Based in these findings, we outline a theory of why citizens use microblogs to interact with government and suggest avenues for further research into microblogs, state-citizens communication patterns and technology adoption.
Auditing Ranked Voting Elections with Dirichlet-Tree Models: First Steps
(2022) Everest, Floyd; Blom, Michelle; B. Stark, Philip; Stuckey, Peter J.; Teague, Vanessa; Vukcevic, Damjan
Ranked voting systems, such as instant-runo voting (IRV) and single transferable vote (STV), are used in many places around the world. They are more complex than plurality and scoring rules, presenting a challenge for auditing their outcomes: there is no known risk-limiting audit (RLA) method for STV other than a full hand count. We present a new approach to auditing ranked systems that uses a sta- tistical model, a Dirichlet-tree, that can cope with high-dimensional pa- rameters in a computationally e cient manner. We demonstrate this ap- proach with a ballot-polling Bayesian audit for IRV elections. Although the technique is not known to be risk-limiting, we suggest some strategies that might allow it to be calibrated to limit risk.
Automated impact assessment - How digitizing government enables rapid and tailor-made policy responses
(Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022-09-14) Maksimova, Mariia; Alishani, Art; Solvak, Mihkel; Krimmer, Robert
As interest in the digital transformation of public administration grows, the main challenge remains to improve government governance systems and integrate a wider range of evidence into decisionmaking processes. The successful digitalization and application of such approaches improves the quality, responsiveness and flexibility of public administrations. The digialtization of processes has made it possible to use micro-level data to assess the impact of a policy or program and apply the feedback to improve the design and delivery of public services. Evidence-based policy-making evaluates programs based on their visible impacts. Large-scale data collected through digitized governance, coupled with econometric impact assessment, provides an ideal working toolkit for this. However, the current situation of European governments is one of slow adoption, as they are often slow to respond to new challenges. This is due to the static one-off impact assessment approaches used, the results of which quickly become outdated. With further digitalization, improvement of systems, and a rapidly changing situation, there is a need to speed up institutions’ ability to quickly draw working solutions to offset the effects of unexpected events in society and economy and react without delays if policy effects dissipate. This paper demonstrates how a high level of digitalization in government allows addressing such issues by automating causal impact assessment and making it a continuous part of the service delivery. The use case is an automated system for assessing active labour market policies in Estonia using individual-level data from government digital registers. Building on this, it shows how impact assessment automation depends on automatically generated data, only available due to the digitalization of other public services, and how versatile it is when it comes to proving casual evidence in a suddenly changing environment.
Building Global Societies on Collective Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities
(Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022-10-14) Suran, Shweta; Pattanaik, Vishwajeet; Kurvers, Ralf; Hallin, Carina Antonia; De Liddo, Anna; Krimmer, Robert; Draheim, Dirk
Digital disruptions caused by the use of technologies like social media arguably present a formidable challenge to democratic values and in turn to Collective Intelligence. Challenges such as misinformation, partisan bias, polarization, and rising mistrust in institutions (including mainstream media), present a new constant threat to collectives both online and offline—amplifying the risk of turning ‘wise’ crowds ‘mad’, and rendering their actions counterproductive. Considering the increasingly important role crowds play in solving today’s socio-political, technological, and economical issues, and in shaping our future, it is vital to protect crowd-oriented systems against such disruptions. In this commentary, we identify time-critical challenges and potential solutions from emerging work on diversity, transparency, collective dynamics, and machine behavior, that require urgent attention, if future CI systems are to sustain their indispensable role as global deliberation instruments.
“Citizens’ social media adoption in Paraguay”
(2021) Homburg, Vincent; Moody, Rebecca
This article aims to identify which factors are associated with Paraguayan citizens’ use of social media in citizen-government relations. We gathered data using a vignette-survey with which responses to four public service problems were recorded, apart from scores on perceived effectiveness, capability, social influence, trust in government, trust in social media infrastructure, and social media anxiety. Multivariate analysis was used to test hypotheses. Perceived effectiveness, social influence and trust in social media infrastructures were found to be significantly correlated with citizens’ use of social media to report public service issues. On the other hand, capability, trust in government and social media anxiety were not found to be associated with citizens’ social media use. The results urge us to further theorize and disentangle how perceived effectiveness, social influence and trust in proprietary social media infrastructures affect digital citizen engagement and participation, and under what conditions proprietary social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter contribute to a vibrant democracy.
Code Voting for Swiss Internet Voting
(2022) Moser, Florian
Cross-border digital public services in the European Union: a systematic literature review
(Inderscience, 2024-05-03) Dedovic, Stefan; Homburg, Vincent
The success of the European single market and advancements in digital technologies have increased the focus on cross-border digital public services. To date, most academic research on digital public services has been concentrated on national and local levels, with research on cross-border digital public services being scattered across various academic disciplines. In this paper, we provide a systematic literature review on cross-border digital public services. We conclude that current research on cross-border digital public services describes the symptoms of faltering coordination at the level of European policy making organisational change challenges and limited maturity with low levels of interoperability between public administrations in the EU. However, cross-border digital public services literature is undertheorised, and we suggest using multi-level governance theories, theories of organisational change, interoperability studies, and service development literature to guide future research into cross-border digital public services, through which European citizens and businesses can experience the impact of European integration policies.
Data-Driven Personalized E-Government Services: Literature Review and Case Study
(Springer International Publishing, 2021-09-07) Maksimova, Mariia; Solvak, Mihkel; Krimmer, Robert
Better targeted and more personalized service offering to citizens has the potential to make state-citizen interactions more seamless, reduce inefficiencies in service provision, and lower barriers to service access for the less informed and disadvantaged social groups. What constitutes personalization and how the service offering can be customized to meet individual user demand is, however, much less clear and underdeveloped partially due to the technical and legal dependencies involved. The paper gives an overview of how personalization and customization of digital service offering have been discussed in the literature and systematizes the main strand emerging from this. It follows up with a case study of the Estonian X-road log data as one potential way to detect latent user demand emerging from an experienced life-event that could form a basis for letting users define their service needs as holistically as possible. The results show the existence of distinct service usage clusters, with specific user profiles behind them, a clear indication of latent demand that leads to a simultaneous consumption of otherwise independent digital services.
Decentralization and its Impacts on Disability Service Delivery in China
(Oxford University Press, 2024-07-16) He, Biao; Halvorsen, Rune; Ding, Peng; Zhang, Wanhong
Amidst the waves of neoliberalism diffused from the Global North, China and other countries in the Global South have adopted decentralization reforms since the 1980s as a strategic approach to drive economic development, improve administrative management, and enhance public service provision. However, empirical observations reveal a nuanced picture of the impacts on public service delivery. This chapter explores how the 1980s and 1990s decentralization reforms in China with its specific characteristics have influenced the disability service delivery by focusing on the provision of accessible government websites. Analyzing the stories of two Chinese municipalities, Wuhan and Shenzhen, this comparative case study identifies divergent outcomes in central-local disability policy transfer and subsequently disability service delivery across localities, arguably linked to the decentralization reforms in the last century. This chapter extends our understanding of the impacts of decentralization on both specific policy domins and societal progress in the Global South.
Digital Sovereignty and Participation in an Autocratic State: Designing an e-Petition System for Developing Countries
(Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2021-06-09) Lips, Silvia; Ahmed, Rozha K.; Khayyam, Zulfigarzada; Krimmer, Robert; Draheim, Dirk
Establishing a sustainable citizens-government dialogue is a crucial topic on the agenda of many countries. E-petition systems are among the most popular and effective tools for establishing a responsive and effective dialog between governments and citizens. E-petition systems mitigate the gap between citizens and government authorities and contribute to the empowerment of citizens. This study aims to determine how to increase citizens’ participation in decision-making processes through the case of an e-petition system in Azerbaijan. The research employs a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods within a case study design. Data were collected from a triangulation of multiple sources, i.e., interviews with state authorities and online survey among the citizens of Azerbaijan. Additionally, we reviewed experiences from other countries that introduced e-petition systems, in order to better understand the success factors of and obstacles to launching e-petition systems, with a particular focus on the needs of developing countries. The outcome of this study is a proposed design of an e-petition system model that can be considered in developing countries.
Digitalisering in de rechtspraak: kan Nederland leren van Estland?
(Rechtstreeks, 2021) Homburg, Vincent; Schmidt, Carsten
Existing comparative studies suggest Estonia is outperforming many Western European countries in terms of electronic service delivery in the judiciary system. This article provides an explanation for this observation. One crucial element in the explanation is the role of the embeddedness of electronic service delivery in the broader national institutions and subsequent organizational ways of working. In addition, for (digital) innovation it is necessary that there is a certain acceptance of failure, with Estonia having a greater tolerance for failure than The Netherlands. The article also notes that there is arguably a strategic component to the use of benchmarks and comparisons, with compelling stories of frontrunners putting developments in other countries in motion. This may lead to the sometimes confusion situation that Estonia is worldwide successtory, whereas in Estonia itself The Netherlands are occasionally portrayed as a benchmark for digitalisation.
Domestic Decision-Making, Regional Linkages, and Cybersecurity Considerations: Implementation of Internet Voting in Russia, September 2021
(2022) Carmichael, Logan; Romanov, Bogdan
The research objective of the article is to explain why and how the Russian Federation implemented online voting in the case of the September 2021 national State Council elections. This case constitutes the first instance of large-scale, non-democratic, and legally binding elections with the use of i-voting. Hence, the paper provides answers to (1) why i-voting was introduced in the already state-controlled electoral context, (2) how Estonia, as a cradle of i-voting, affected the decision-making in Russia, and (3) how cybersecurity concerns were addressed by technology providers and engage in a discussion about cybersecurity not for users, but for officials. Our research design focuses on the instance of Russian online voting without going into further details of regional and capital city distinction and relies on the interview data. Results show that (1) the primary motivation underpinning the introduction of i-voting in Russia was regime stability, (2) Estonian successes in e-governance and i-voting did not impact decision-making in Russia, and (3) cybersecurity concerns around the i-voting technologies used in Russia were indeed present but were not central to decision-making. Findings have broader implications, the research fills in a gap in the literature surrounding the emergence of i-voting, as well as the relationship these processes have with existing, longer-term implementations in democratic states. At the same time, from the empirical viewpoint, the work sheds light on how topics in non-democracies can be studied.
Dubious security practices in e-voting schemes Between tech and legal standards
(2022) Finogina, Tamara; Rodrıguez-Perez, Adria; Puiggali, Jordi
Remote electronic voting has been around for a few decades now. However, some legal uncertainty regarding its uses remains. In this paper, we would like to highlight and discuss several techniques used in e-voting which may not be fully compliant with the law. We analyze several e-voting practices that rely on the addition of dummy ballots and show how they conflict with legal standards. Specifically, we focus on cases where dummy ballots are required for: better performance, testing, participation privacy, or preventing coercion. We argue that these practices may raise issues with the standards of authenticity and eligibility, as well as with the principle “one voter, one vote”. Our research aims to offer a better understanding of how legal principles can be interpreted to ensure the legality of technological proposals in e-voting.
E-Vote-ID 2022
(2022-10) Krimmer, Robert; Volkamer, Melanie; Duenas-Cid, David; Budurushi, Jurlind; Germann, Micha; Glondu, Stéphane; Hofer,Thomas; Krivonosova, Iuliia; Martin-Rozumilowicz, Beata; Rønne, Peter; Zollinger, Marie-Laure
This volume contains papers presented at E-Vote-ID 2022, the Seventh International JointConference on Electronic Voting, held during October 4–7, 2022. This was the first in-personconference following the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as such, it was a very special event forthe community since we returned to the traditional venue in Bregenz, Austria. The E-Vote-IDconference resulted from merging EVOTE and Vote-ID, and 18 years have now elapsed sincethe first EVOTE conference in Austria.Since that conference in 2004, over 1500 experts have attended the venue, including scholars,practitioners, authorities, electoral managers, vendors, and PhD students. E-Vote-ID collectsthe most relevant debates on the development of electronic voting, from aspects relating tosecurity and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, alsoincluding legal, social, or political aspects, amongst others, turning out to be an importantglobal referent on these issues.
E-Voting Wasm Cryptography
(2022) Ruescas, David; Robles, Eduardo
The Sequent Voting Platform is an open-source E2EV internet voting system currently used in private organisations and non-legally binding elections of public organisations. The system employs standard cryptographic techniques following in the steps of well-established voting schemes proposed in the academic literature. We demo core cryptographic components that are being developed for the next generation of Sequent's platform. The main novelty demonstrated is the execution of (heavyweight) cryptographic operations in the browser, in a performant way. Potential applications of this technique are listed and possible bene ts for security, privacy and veri ability are suggested.
Elections in digital times: a guide for electoral practitioners
(2022) Krimmer, Robert; Rabitsch, Armin; Kužel, Rast’o; Achler, Marta; Licht, Nathan
Strengthening democracy and electoral processes in the era of social media and Artificial Intelligence Democracy requires free, periodic, transparent, and inclusive elections. Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and the right to political participation are also critical to societies ruled by the respect of human rights. In today’s rapidly evolving digital environment, opportunities for communication between citizens, politicians and political parties are unprecedented –– with information related to elections flowing faster and easier than ever, coupled with expanded opportunities for its verification and correction by a growing number of stakeholders. However, with billions of human beings connected, and disinformation and misinformation circulating unhinged around the networks, democratic processes and access to reliable information are at risk. With an estimated 56.8% of the world’s population active on social media and an estimate of 4 billion eligible voters, the ubiquity of social networks and the impact of Artificial Intelligence can intentionally or unintentionally undermine electoral processes, thereby delegitimizing democracies worldwide. In this context, all actors involved in electoral processes have an essential role to play. Electoral management bodies, electoral practitioners, the media, voters, political parties, and civil society organizations must understand the scope and impact of social media and Artificial Intelligence in the electoral cycle. They also need to have access to the tools to identify who instigates and spreads disinformation and misinformation, and the tools and strategies to combat it. This handbook aims to be a toolbox that helps better understand the current scenario and share experiences of good practices in different electoral settings and equip electoral practitioners and other key actors from all over the world to ensure the credibility of the democratic system in times of profound transformations.
Electis.app White Paper
(2022) Mentré, Gilles; Mignot, Thomas; Nouyrigat, Franck; Melcher, Lena
The Electis voting App (Electis.app) is a web application built using Django and ElectionGuard SDK). The latter comes with homomorphic encryption and end-to-end verifiable proof of ballots and tally (initially designed for US election machines. In addition, Electis.app relies on the Tezos blockchain to generate proof of the election via a smart contract. Finally, it uses IPFS decentralized storage to share the proof and ballots with voters to allow them to verify the election was not violated. This document dives into the overall architecture of the e-voting platform and discusses the application'sapplication's key features and how the election is decentralized.

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