A three–layered framework for evaluating e–participation

This paper presents a framework for evaluating e–participation, distinguishing between internal project components and external moderators and between front and back regions of e–participation from a governance perspective. It uses a three–layered impact assessment framework comprising outputs, outcomes and impacts and employs the notion of an intervention logic specifying types of actions necessary to initiate and manage participation processes. Its multi–layered and bounded character prompts evaluators to consider links to high–level policy goals, cultural factors and the chain of transformations which condition long–term impacts. We show how we populated the framework for the purposes of a study of European e–participation.