Profesional de la información, 2023, v. 32, n. 1. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 1 Political parties’ infuence on the transparency and participation of Spanish municipal websites: the case of Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, the Community of Valencia, and the Region of Murcia María-Pilar Paricio-Esteban; María Puchalt-López; María P. García-Alcober; Blanca Nicasio-Varea Recommended citaton: Paricio-Esteban, María-Pilar; Puchalt-López, María; García-Alcober, María P.; Nicasio-Varea, Blanca (2023). “Politcal partes’ infuence on the transparency and partcipaton of Spanish municipal websites: the case of Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, the Community of Valencia, and the Region of Murcia”. Profesional de la información, v. 32, n. 1, e320120. htps://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2023.ene.20 Manuscript received on 8 th July 2022 Accepted on 16 th December 2022 María-Pilar Paricio-Esteban * htps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8831-9352 Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU Observatorio de Gobernanza, Transparencia y RSC Luis Vives, 1 46115 Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia), Spain pparicio@uchceu.es Abstract In modern democratc states, citzen partcipaton is promoted through representatve channels. In recent years, at the diferent insttutonal and politcal levels in Spain, some classic parameters of democracy have been called into queston, such as citzen representaton, deliberaton, and the responsibility of the rulers towards the citzens. This crisis coincides with a decline in bipartsanship in Spain and the appearance of new partes. Some of this partes championed the rege- neraton of democracy, commitng themselves to encouraging transparency and citzen partcipaton in public manage- ment. As local enttes are the insttutons closest to citzens, both transparency and partcipaton become key elements to comply with these parameters, providing the technologies of informaton and communicaton (ICT) with new tools such as websites and portals, which can contribute to strengthening them. This research aims to analyze the use of these channels to promote transparency and citzen partcipaton, by the municipalites of 4 autonomous communites (Cata- lonia, the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community, and the Region of Murcia), placing special emphasis on how the lef-right axes and old-new partes could infuence, along with the populaton size of the municipalites. The method used consists of a categorical content analysis, based on the Infopartcipa Map indicators and two linear regression mo- dels using ordinary least squares. The results and conclusions of the study show that the size of the populaton and the Nota: Este artculo se puede leer en español en: htps://revista.profesionaldelainformacion.com/index.php/EPI/artcle/view/87054 María Puchalt-López htps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4098-736X Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU Observatorio de Gobernanza, Transparencia y RSC Luis Vives, 1 46115 Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia), Spain maria.puchalt@uchceu.es María P. García-Alcober htps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5342-3320 Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU Observatorio de Gobernanza, Transparencia y RSC Luis Vives, 1 46115 Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia), Spain maria.garcia3@uchceu.es Blanca Nicasio-Varea htps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6210-242X Universidad Cardenal Herrera-CEU Observatorio de Gobernanza, Transparencia y RSC Luis Vives, 1 46115 Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia), Spain blanca.nicasio@uchceu.es