How do French Municipalities Communicate on Citizen Involvement?: The Success of Participatory Democracy in France

2. State Of The Art

There is a distinction between local e-government and e-democracy. The local e-government refers to the digital interface between local authorities and citizens. “E-government is not an end in itself. It is at the heart of the drive to modernise government. Modernising local government is about enhancing the quality of local services and the effectiveness of local democracy” (Raynsford & Beecham, 2002, p. 5). The need for an efficient e-government grew with the use of computers by local administrations (Jaeger, 2003). The first studies on the question were made in the U.S. with an analysis of the services provided through internet to citizens. In September 2001, 56% of U.S. households had computers; they were just 42% in December 1998 (Hauer et al., 2002). The promotion of e-government was all the easier as most of citizens were connected to internet. Different studies were made on e-government in Europe and in Asia at the beginning of the years 2000 (Howard, 2001; OECD, 2003; Holzer & Kim, 2004).