Electronic Government at the American Grassroots

Abstract

During the past 10 years or so, governments in the United States have rushed to adopt and implement electronic government or e-government (defined as the electronic delivery of governmental information and services 24 hours per day, seven days per week, see Norris, Fletcher, & Holden, 2001). Today, the federal government, all 50 state governments (and probably all departments within them), and the great majority of general purpose local governments of any size have official presences on the World Wide Web through which they deliver information and services and, increasingly, offer transactions. In this article, I examine the current state of the practice of e-government at the grassroots in the U.S.—that is, e-government among American local governments. In particular, I address the extent of local adoption of e-government, including the reasons for adoption, the relative sophistication of local e-government, and barriers to and initial impacts of e-government.