Tracking E-Government in South America: Origin and Impact of E-Government Strategies in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay

Abstract

The existing disparity regarding the achievements of electronic-government development in the Southern Cone area is owed to implementation processes characterized by the coexistence of organizational isomorphism patterns along with each country’s own institutional framework. Insofar as electronic government was developed within the public administration’s modernization processes, and that said processes were financed almost entirely by international credit institutions, there is a similarity among the different strategies implemented; the same responds to a middle-level policy transfer process. However, institutional environments have exerted a decisive influence on the effective implementation of the original schemes, thus determining significant differences regarding the impacts of each policy. This chapter develops this perspective, understanding that acknowledgement of this path covered may contribute to adapting strategies to the frameworks in which they have been introduced, thus fostering amortization of resources invested, survival of initiatives, and use of electronic-government benefits in the construction of an efficient and transparent public administration open to citizens.