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Hu, 2020a; Stone & Can, 2021). Empowerment as a concept is related to the word ‘power’, i.e. the
ability and permission to achieve a specific goal. Also, the term ‘to be empowered’ relates to both
a process and an outcome – to the effort to obtain a relative degree of ability to influence the
world (Staples, 1990). In this context, Digital Citizen Empowerment (DCE) is not only about providing
basic access to information and services, but is about achieving human capital improvement, transforming citizens from general users into empowered individuals who can act as problem identifiers
and civic solution innovators, contributing back to the ecosystem within which they thrive (Pirannejad & Janssen, 2017). This process of using ICT for governance and reaching the marginalized social
classes is a leveller for the digital divide experienced in developing countries (James, 2020; Simons
et al., 2020). Internet and its usage for political participation are seen as an equalizer for the power
imbalance in communities (Sasaki, 2017). Digital services for governance and the facilitation of
openly available government data are promoters of involving and collaborative politics at the
local and global levels (Meng et al., 2019; Tianru, 2020). Lately, online platforms have become
highly involved and integrated with the realization of public values. Research establishes a need
for joint responsibility between governments and citizens to actualize development policy objectives (Helberger et al., 2018). The context of DCE also becomes increasingly important as the
modern youth spends a significant time socializing online, and digital platforms have become a prominent space of political discourse for them (Literat et al., 2018). Scholars note a shift towards a
citizen-centric capability development approach for designing and managing initiatives in the
area of developing human capabilities and delivering development and empowerment goals.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sees citizen empowerment as a necessary condition for enhancing the quality of service delivery, establishing the credibility of government decisions, and supporting the legitimacy of governance in any country
(OECD, 2001). Across the globe, we are witnessing the advent of smart cities and the development
of digitally connected ecosystems with dis-intermediated, citizen–state interaction to solve social
and administrative issues at local and national levels (Kar et al., 2019). Researchers have long
believed in the potential of using engaging and empowering processes as a remedy for the problems of any democratic system, such as corruption, elite capture, and discrimination, among
others. Multiple studies show a changing pattern in the strategies, theories, and frameworks that
drive the DG initiatives aimed at DCE. Through our study, we are trying to understand how governments worldwide are building up their infrastructure and human capacity to develop these future
information societies. We have attempted to present specific action and policy points for practitioners and researchers based on the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of DCE. The aim
is to provide theoretical support for the phased development of information societies and the
human capacity of people living in them. We will focus on exploring the literature for theories
and models for achieving DCE. Our motivation stems from the fact that the literature notes that
most information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) initiatives fail
because of their inability to deliver power to the hands of the people. Ensuring citizens’ sustained
voluntary participation as not mere consumers but co-creators and prosumers of these initiatives
is crucial to deliver local and national social development goals. For these reasons, we aim to
answer two research questions at the end of this review:
(1) What are the different citizen–state interaction models through which governments are trying to
achieve citizen empowerment using ICT?
(2) What are the main supporting and obstructing factors that affect the development of a knowledge society as targeted in digital transformation initiatives by governments?
The remaining sections of the manuscript have been organized as follows: section 2 covers the
background literature on the concept of empowerment; section 3 covers the selection of literature
for review in this study; section 4 covers the analysis of selected literature; section 5 covers the
findings of our in-depth review of literature based on identified themes and summarizes them