Smart Governance: a New Approach in Realizing Effective Participation and Cooperation of Citizens

Governance is not a new concept and various theories and models have been proposed for a long time. This category has different types, and smart governance is one of the most important. Smart governance is an approach for citizen-oriented governments with capabilities such as human capital development, information and communication technology infrastructure, and active citizenship; it provides public participation, and technological, organizational and political innovation. The purpose of this research is to identify the components and indicators of smart governance in line with the effective participation and cooperation of citizens. This research is qualitative based on the nature of the data and the research method used in it is the focus group method. The data collection tools are semi-structured interviews that were collected from three focus groups with academic and executive participants related to the fields of governance, political science, public administration, and public participation. According to the findings of the research, 83 primary codes, 37 centralized codes, 17 systematic codes and 4 main categories were extracted, which are considered as the main components and indicators of smart governance in realizing the effective participation and cooperation of citizens. From the results of the present research, it is possible to point out the important features of smart governance, such as "futurism, innovativeness, and micro-centeredness" that governments can create the necessary background and platform for cooperation and participation of citizens by referring to such aspects.