Explaining Trust in IT-Mediated Elections: A Case Study of E-Voting in Brazil
Authors: Avgerou, Chrisanthi
Journal: Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2013)
DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00340
In this paper, I trace social mechanisms for the development and continuation of citizens’ trust in e-voting. My research focuses on the processes that give rise to trust-related behavior, and identifies mechanisms that explain trust in e-voting. I distinguish between initial formation and recurrent manifestation of trust, and propose models of causal processes to explain them. I frame the research on trust in e-voting as a case of political trust in the socio-technical entity of the electoral authorities and the e-voting system, and draw from general sociotechnical theories and literature on trust to construct relevant concepts and relationships. Empirically, this theory-building exercise traces the process of the initial development of trust in e-voting in Brazil in the 1990s and the maintenance of this trust in the conduct of Brazilian elections since then. The social mechanisms of trust that I derive from this study are associated with the process of democratization and continuing care towards adjusting the e-voting system to serve legitimate objectives for the conduct of elections, the interdependence of citizens’ perception of the trustworthiness of the technology system and…