The nature of government-citizen communication in the Algerian Southern states

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of citizens’ communication with local governments in the southern states of Algeria. Adopting an exploratory qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 respondents from four southern states of Algeria. The thematic analysis revealed three key themes related to the nature of government-citizen communication in the southern states of Algeria: frequency, type, and purpose. The findings of this study showed that conventional “face-to-face” communication was the dominant type of citizen communication with local governments. This study also showed that communication between local governments and citizens in the southern states of Algeria is limited, and does not reflect active citizen engagement in public affairs. The findings also suggest that the use of ICT and social media is limited. The primary implication of this study is that the extent of engagement and participation of citizens in decision-making processes at the level of local governments in the southern states of Algeria falls below expectations, which could potentially hinder the development process in the country. The findings of this study contribute significantly to the understanding of government-citizen communication in the southern states of Algeria. This study offers important practical recommendations that can help foster effective communication between local governments and citizens, especially in marginalised communities in Algeria and other countries in the North African region.

Keywords

• Public sector communication
• government–citizen communication
• local government
• citizen participation
• Algeria
• Read Robert, Economics, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK