E-Government in Latin American Cities: An Assessment of Selected City Web Sites

Abstract

This chapter examines e-government practices in Latin American cities. Emphasis is placed on five areas: privacy and security, usability, content, services, and citizen participation. In Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide, Holzer and Kim (2004) evaluated e-government in the largest municipality in each of 100 countries. Included in this study were the largest cities in 15 Latin American countries. This chapter focuses on these 15 cities, highlighting those that received the highest overall index score. In addition, five cities with above-average scores in the five e-government component areas are assessed. Although this chapter does not take into consideration all e-government practices in Latin America, it does provide benchmark cases for cities in the Latin American region.