Political Implications of Digital (e-) Government

Abstract

Citizen participation-driven e-government is, in theory, a desirable objective of government. However, it is complex along a variety of dimensions: from a design standpoint, considering the implementation aspects of access, and awareness; from a baseline assessment of what has been implemented to date empirically; and in terms of a meaningful design of responsive policy. Much of the observed variations in e-government applications is still descriptive in nature and given the rapidly emerging technological and political ramifications, is expected. Following an overview of several examples of different types of participation-related e-government applications, we present preliminary results of an examination of the relationship between state e-government initiatives and underlying demographic, cultural or economic variables. While the population of a state appears to be related to the presence of e-government applications, beyond this, curiously, few of the expected relationships appear, or appear to operate in conflicting manners depending on the dataset used. As such, additional research drawing on larger dataset and more robust instrumentation is needed.