The study of Citizen's Political Empowerment Under ICT penetration

Political Participation of citizens is an important political issue which affects the process of political development in each society. In the age of information revolution, information and communication technologies are penetrating all levels of societies and have catalyzed the process of development in every country and encourage many scholars to study how these technologies affect the social, political and economic aspects of each society. This study examines the effect of ICTs penetration on citizens’ political empowerment, as an important component of the process of political development. In this paper, in order to explore the effect comprehensively, the interview method and employs qualitative approaches such as grounded theory are used. Sixteen scholars in the fields of political science, public administration and information and technology were interviewed to investigate how ICT affect the citizens’ political empowerment. The results of the analyses of the interviews were categorized into six categories: digital information, political parties, virtual social networks, digital public control, digital consultant, and digital public decision making. The explanation of each factor regarding the effects of ICT on political empowerment is discussed.