Accountability and the promotion of democracy: an investigation into municipal electronic portals in southern Bahia.
Accountability. Web portals. Popular participation. Municipalities.
This paper aims to analyze the implementation of accountability in electronic portals of the municipal portals of the municipal executive, identifying the contributions of accountability in the electronic environment to strengthen democracy and to promote an active citizenship. To this end, a survey was carried out in web portals of five municipalities from the interior of Bahia: Itabuna, Ilheus, Teixeira de Freitas, Porto Seguro and Eunapolis. These were selected considering their geographical location and demographic and economic aspects. Data collection occurred through an Observation Form, with the objective of verifying the quality of the data (relevance and clarity of the information) and e ase of access (layout with objective links). The Reports of Requests made available by the municipalities themselves were also used, in order to verify the rate of popular participation. Verifying the sufficiency of accountability for the exercise of an ac tive citizenship is relevant for the study of democracy in Brazil, since it enables a critical view of state instruments and their adequacy to the characteristics of Brazilian society.