Governments across the world are rapidly transforming to the Internet to provide public services and public administrators are increasingly implementing various strategies to enable this transformation. This phenomenon, broadly referred to as e-government, began in the early 1990s and was gradually adopted by governments and public agencies at federal, state, city, and county levels. Recently, the public sector has extended the scope of e-government to "e-governance," which includes civic engagement and citizen participation. The Internet is a convenient mechanism for citizen-users and advocacy groups to interact with their government, and numerous researchers have highlighted this potential. E-governance refers to both e-government (delivery of public services) and e-democracy (citizen participation in governance). Although, many scholars agree on the potential of e-governance, little has been written about the state of current e-governance practices with regard to online citizen engagement.
The primary purpose of the book is to chronicle the efforts by governments across the world to engage their citizens online. This book presents a wide range of research on different aspects of e-governance and civic engagement including transparency and accountability, usability and accessibility, digital divide, public stakeholder participation, social media engagement, local level government issues, and performance and citizen satisfaction. Focusing on the issues and challenges involving adoption and implementation of online civic engagement initiatives globally, the book should serve as a valuable guide to governments in their transformation to e-governance.
TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY
In Chapter 1, The ARRA Websites through the Lens of Digital Accountability and Citizen Engagement, M. Ernita Joaquin and Thomas J. Greitens examine the U.S. state websites’ commitment to improving transparency and accountability in light of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The authors study and evaluate the extent to which state ARRA websites promote citizen engagement and government accountability, arguing that performance-based government accountability should accompany efforts to increase citizen engagement. The research reveals that states are better at including engagement data than at demonstrating performance-based accountability and that various public services are now more efficiently provided through the Internet, along with access to information, particularly those in regard to budgetary matters. The chapter concludes with suggestions for enhancing e-governance relationships through a dialogue on performance and sustaining digital democracy, including its intergovernmental aspects.
In Chapter 2, Exploring Determinants of Governmental Transparency: The Case of Municipal Websites as a Tool for Proactive Dissemination, Erin L. Borry examines the proactive dissemination behaviors of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities through a content analysis of their websites. Arguing that transparency provides residents with information that has the potential to improve citizen participation and engagement, Borry focuses on proactive dissemination, one of the lesser studied of the five avenues of transparency. Based on her cluster analysis research, per capita income, population, age, and percentage of non-white and rural populations all have some degree of impact on the posting behaviors of municipalities. The author thereafter provides directions for further research on measuring proactive dissemination and encourages future researchers to include more governmental determinants for transparent behavior as well as to explore whether or not transparency translates into greater citizen participation.
In Chapter 3, E-Government for Transparency in Mexico: Advances and Limits in Promoting Open Government and Citizen Engagement, Cristina Galíndez-Hernández and Ernesto Velasco-Sánchez discuss the implications of e-government for transparency in Mexico together with the advances and limitations in promoting open government and citizen engagement. Galíndez-Hernández and Velasco-Sánchez provide a brief background on the development of e-government at that country's federal level and examine the use of information technology in the implementation of the Federal Law on Transparency and Access to Public Government Information in April 2002. This law highlights Mexico’s efforts in the recognition and protection of the right to access government information. In concluding this chapter, the authors examine the institutional, structural, and behavioral factors affecting the use of ICTs for promoting transparency and fostering citizen engagement in Mexico.
In Chapter 4, E-Procurement: Understanding Implementation, its authors, Daniel Bromberg, Karina Saldivar, and Marc Fudge explore the phenomenon of electronic procurement at the municipal level in the United States and across the world. Apart from cost-savings, the authors found that many governments are recognizing e-procurement as a tool to achieve transparency and accountability, especially through the use of a centralized system to monitor contracts. Based on two sets of data from the E-Governance Institute at the School of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers-Newark, the authors provide a comparative analysis of the implementation of e-procurement within the U.S. and internationally. Their findings suggest a broad implementation of electronic procurement throughout the world; however, they also demonstrate that there is uneven implementation as to the details of adoption.
In Chapter 5, E-Disclosure of Campaign Finance Information: Agenda Setting and Policy Change, Ramona McNeal uses panel corrected cross-sectional time series analysis to examine the factors influencing increased interest in e-disclosure laws at the state level from 2005-2009. Throughout the United States, disclosure has long been a primary tool in fighting corruption, and recent scandals involving money in politics have only helped place disclosure back on the agenda of many of the 50 states. Moreover, with the adoption of e-governance, many new laws regulating disclosure have taken the form of e-disclosure. However, current e-disclosure policies at state levels differ in their requirements on posting campaign finance information and the level of donor employment information online. McNeal reports that the states also vary in their response to recent pressure to strengthen these policies. The author concludes with an analysis of the factors affecting the variation in legislative responsiveness to demand for greater transparency in the electoral process, followed by a general discussion on agenda setting theories and the history of campaign finance reform in the United States.
In Chapter 6, Courts on Screen: E-Government and the Increase of Judicial Transparency, Roberto Fragale Filho examines the role of TV Justiça – the official Brazilian court TV – in increasing judicial transparency and accountability. Filho argues that while public access to government information and services and public scrutiny of governmental agenda are key issues for e-government in Brazil, the courts are also a part of government. Therefore, their compliance with e-government matters should not be limited to the existence of websites and the availability of information. The author believes that media convergence, the use of social media and live broadcasting on the web, reinvigorates the old debate on the presence of cameras in the courtrooms and challenges the secrecy of judicial deliberations. The chapter concludes with an examination of the phenomenon of courts on screen - TV Justiça, its recent arrival on YouTube and Twitter, and its implications for judicial transparency and accountability in Brazil.
USABILITY AND ACCESSIBILITY
In Chapter 7, Accessibility and Usability Issues, Eugene Monaco, Stephen Lackey, Edward Skawinski, Rebecca Stanley, and Carol Day Young examine issues surrounding accessibility and usability as gateways to e-governance. The authors take the position that democratic governments seek to serve all citizens equally and fairly. Thus, achieving this ideal in e-governance is dependent upon a government’s commitment to the development of websites and web applications that encourage and enable participation by all. The authors argue that in the United States, accessibility is addressed as a civil right for individuals with disabilities as codified in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. They then go on to examine the professional and legal standards for accessibility and usability as well as actual implementation based on a survey of New York State webmasters. Their study particularly focuses on the differences in perception between IT professionals and agency management with respect to the relative importance of accessibility and usability, and provision of resources to enhance usability.
In Chapter 8, Facilitating Knowledge Sharing in e-Governance: Online Spatial Displays as Translating Devices, Jarkko Bamberg and Pauliina Lehtonen introduce a case study on developing practices of neighborhood participation by utilizing ICTs in the city of Tampere, Finland. They report that a citizen panel organized by a participatory action research project attempted to determine meaningful ways for residents to influence the development of the Tesoma neighborhood in the city of Tampere. The authors' case study suggests that interactive online spatial displays such as interactive maps and simulations have the potential to facilitate meaningful exchange of information by three mechanisms of translation: 1) giving access to information from viewpoints familiar to the residents, 2) aiding the translation of technical-rational information of public administration for citizens with illustrative visualizations, and 3) giving residents multimodal means of producing input to administrators and planners.
In Chapter 9, E-Governance in Slovenia: National Assembly and its Website as a Tool for Active Citizen Participation, Suzana Žilic Fišer, Sandra Bašic Hrvatin, Dejan Vercic, and Petra Cafnik evaluate the usability of the website of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia. With ICTs enabling increased political participation online, the authors argue that the inclusion of citizens in the working of their highest political body - the parliament- should be easier than ever. In this chapter, the authors analyze the usability, usefulness, and utility of the parliamentary website and examine the feasibility of citizen participation at each stage of the decision-making process. Lastly, the authors report on the limits of the current website of the National Assembly of Slovenia and propose guidelines for increasing usability and improving user experience.
DIGITAL DIVIDE
In Chapter 10, The Global Digital Divide and Its Impact on E-Governance, Michael Howell-Moroney explores the digital divide and the scholarly research investigating the factors affecting its explication. As technology advances across the globe, Howell-Moroney argues that it is accompanied by an increasing disparity in its diffusion, adoption, and utilization. The author then examines the evidence for the digital divide and the empirical research that has examined its causes and correlates. Howell-Moroney explores the connections between the digital divide and prospects for e-government and e-governance worldwide and finds that the digital divide is largely explained by variations in national wealth. He concludes his discussion with current policy choices and dilemmas posed by the digital divide.
In Chapter 11, Global Digital Divide: Language Gap and Post-Communism in Mongolia, Undrahbuyan Baasanjav examines the digital divide in the former socialist country of Mongolia and the language factors that exacerbate this divide. Despite the relatively high illiteracy rate, Baasanjav believes that Internet use is still low partly due to the use of the Cyrillic alphabet and the low degree of English knowledge among Mongolians. She then explores the influence of post-communist political setting, aid dependency, and international organizations on Internet development in Mongolia. Particularly, initiating non-western alphabet domain names and setting culturally inclusive non-western alphabet standards have been essential in achieving linguistic diversity on the Internet and overcoming the digital divide in countries like Mongolia.
In Chapter 12, Internal Digital Divide in Organizations, Kerstin Grundén examines the digital divide from an organizational perspective by studying the internal digital divide aspects in organizations, especially those involved in the implementation process of e-government. Grunden reports that research often ignores the internal digital divide in organizations: the divide between employees who are interested and motivated to engage in the implementation process of e-government, and those who are not. The chapter is based on a longitudinal case study focusing on the implementation of e-government at the County Administrative Board in Sweden and focuses upon various aspects related to the internal digital divide, such as learning, motivation, professionalization, management strategies, and organizational culture. In conclusion, Grundén examines the possibility of Soft Systems Methodology as a strategy for analysis and change of internal digital divide aspects together with a discussion among the concerned communities.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
In Chapter 13, Municipal Government and the Interactive Web: Trends and Issues for Civic Engagement, Benedict S. Jimenez, Karen Mossberger, and Yonghong Wu look at the opportunities for citizens to interact online with local government within the United States. Based on a content analysis of the websites of the 75 largest U.S. cities, the authors identify the extent to which websites provide features that facilitate online information customization and online citizen participation. Their research discloses that many municipal governments have steadily developed their online capacity to provide information to local residents, but new media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube remain underutilized. Moreover, their findings reveal that cities with large African-American and Latino populations tend to have less interactive websites, while the largest cities are more likely to have more participatory opportunities online.
In Chapter 14, Small Communities and the Limits of E-Government Engagement: A Northeast Ohio Case Study, John Hoornbeek, Kent Sowards, and Brian Kelley examine e-government engagement among small communities in northeast Ohio. The chapter assesses the extent to which small communities in northeast Ohio use websites to engage their citizens. Additionally, the authors analyze factors specifically influencing small local governments to establish websites and develop them with multiple attributes to enable citizen engagement. Their findings indicate that limited capacities and uncertain demands contribute to the limitations of small community website operations. The authors also provide an understanding of constraints to e-government transformations as well as the inconsistent nature of online citizen engagements.
In Chapter 15, Internet and Citizen Participation: State of the Art, Factors and Determinants at Local Level in Catalonia, Clelia Colombo examines online and offline participatory experiences, as well as participatory functionalities through local government websites in Catalonia. Colombo finds that ICTs have been incorporated into politics and democratic innovation experiences, such as citizen participation in public decision-making. However, she states that there are important differences in the drive for and the development of electronic participatory experiences and that data collection methods are inconsistent. The author explores the nature of experiences being promoted online and determines the factors affecting participatory experiences including political affiliation of the mayor, electoral abstention rate, and the municipality or the population size.
PUBLIC STAKEHOLDER PARTICIPATION
In Chapter 16, Who Participates Now… and Why? A Case Study of Modern Interest Participation and Bureaucratic Decision-Making in the Age of E-Government, William G. Resh examines how technological changes to the opportunities for participation in the notice-and-comment stage of the rulemaking process impact the quality, quantity, and content of information provided by stakeholders to governmental decision-makers. Secondly the author examines how the dimensions of complexity and salience of policy issues affect the levels of stakeholder participation in regulatory policy-making. Based on interviews with regulatory analysts involved with the transition to www.regulations.gov, the author demonstrates that the pursuit of equity and securing the individual rights of citizens to participate is not necessarily compatible with the values of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness.
In Chapter 17, Introducing Psychological Factors into E-Participation Research, Noella Edelmann and Peter Cruickshank examine the process of e-petitioning as a successful application of e-participation from a psychological perspective. Among the various tools for e-participation, the authors present a persuasive discussion that online petitions, also called e-petitions, are considered to be one of the most mature and proven tools, with a comparatively long history as part of the established political processes. The authors present an analysis of the psychological dimensions such as personality, needs and self-efficacy affecting citizens’ behaviors and intentions in engaging with an e-participation system. Their study provides an understanding of patterns of uptake, the use of e-petitioning systems, as well as the factors that influence the citizens’ decision-making process.
In Chapter 18, The Internet and Representative Democracy: A Doomed Marriage? Giovanni Navarria studies the Road Tax online-petition which attracted almost 2 million signatures on the UK Government e-Petition website in early 2007. He finds that while new communication media such as the Internet promises potential in the fight against the hubris of power, these same technologies can serve the agenda of those who want to influence popular consent in support of questionable politics. This can hinder the representative system in its very essence. The author explains how simple and historical participation vehicles such as petitions can lead to unexpected outcomes when provided through Web technologies. Using the road-tax petition as an example, Navarria sets forth the possibilities embedded in the use of new technologies within representative democratic systems, the challenges they pose for democracy and their unforeseen consequences.
ADVOCACY GROUP PARTICIPATION
In Chapter 19, ICTs for Empowerment? Disability Organizations and the Democratizing Potential of Web 2.0 in Scotland, Filippo Trevisan analyzes the websites of Scottish disability organizations and explores the potential for more participatory relationships with disabled people. Trevisan discusses how voluntary organizations and advocacy groups have become increasingly influential in British politics as intermediaries between institutions and citizens. However, the public remains concerned on their representativeness, accountability, and the legitimacy of their role in governance. The author analyzes these issues through the results of an empirical study of Scottish disability organizations’ websites. Trevisan concludes that while the Internet promises the potential of breaking down barriers, he also finds that disabled users seem at best to be mobilized around a pre-determined agenda rather than genuinely engaged as participants.
In Chapter 20, A Longitudinal Study of Political Technology Use by Nonprofit Child Advocacy Organizations, John McNutt and Janice Barlow address the use of technology by a group of state level nonprofit advocacy organizations over three periods of time. The authors posit that recent rents in devolution have resulted in many of the policy battles being conducted at the state level, with state advocacy organizations replacing national level organizations on the front lines. The research questions raised by the authors in this study are: (1) what types of high technology are state level child advocacy organizations using in their policy work and how has this differed over time? (2) What technologies have been adopted and then discarded? (3) What organizational and technology characteristics predict higher levels of adoption and institutionalization? The researchers report that technology remains active in most cases while new technology begins to emerge.
YOUNG PEOPLE AND USE OF ICT
In Chapter 21, How Young People Are Using Communication Technologies as Platforms and Pathways to Engagement: What the Research Tells Us, Christopher Peter Latimer and J. Richard Kendrick, Jr. examine how communication technologies are being used by young people as platforms and pathways for civic and political engagement. They report that previous research has often ignored the differences between individuals engaged only by using communication technologies (technology as a platform for participation) versus those engaged beyond the use of communication technologies (technology as a pathway for participation). According to the authors, clarifying this distinction will help government officials to develop appropriate strategies for engaging young people through technology. The authors also provide recommendations to policy and decision makers based on the results of their analysis of the extant literature.
In Chapter 22, E-Democracy Postponed: Public Policy Design the Key to UK E-Voting, Mark Liptrott discusses the strategy of the UK government in promoting e-democracy through the ballot box, arguing that the design of the UK electoral modernization policy, which introduced e-voting, inhibits the development of e-democracy. Liptrott states that the UK government proposes to introduce e-voting through the public policy process as part of the strategy to enhance participation in representative democracy. However, the weaknesses and omissions in the design of the public policy influence e-voting adoption decisions of local authorities and their availability to the public. The chapter concludes with a recommendation to address policy weaknesses and a suggestion for future research along with emphasizing the need to evaluate Citizenship Education as a strategy to boost civic engagement.
In Chapter 23, The Internet as The Public Sphere: Deliberative Democracy and Civic Engagement, Jarice Hanson and Alina Hogea summarize some of the key perspectives of scholars and practitioners on the potential of the Internet to facilitate civic engagement and enable the public to form opinions. This facilitates civic discourse and the shaping of public opinion. The authors suggest that Internet has often been heralded as a tool for e-governance and public action because of its ubiquity, accessibility, and the ability for users to participate in online expressions of opinion. Based on the work of Jurgen Habermas to identify the preconditions for the functioning of a “public sphere,” the authors address four distinctly different approaches to the discussion of the Internet’s role as an effective tool for deliberative democracy.
SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
In Chapter 24, Empowering People Using Twitter: The Case of Mexico’s Internet Tax, Rodrigo Sandoval-Almazan and Mario Arturo Gutierrez-Alonso explore the uses and misuses of Twitter in Mexican online protests and in common citizen-user interactions. The authors report that Twitter is being increasingly utilized in Mexico as a platform to form and push ideas regarding government policies. This technological tool enables citizens to pressure political actors and the media to clarify their positions on certain issues. The authors review the origins and fundamental principles of Twitter and social interaction, along with discussing the outcomes and possible implications of citizens’ empowerment through Twitter. The authors conclude with an explanatory model of e-participation as a possible explanation of this phenomenon, and the promotion of ideas in order to utilize Twitter to its maximum potential.
In Chapter 25, Local Government Use of Web 2.0: Los Angeles County Perspective, Raoul J. Freeman and Peter Loo analyze the potential of Web 2.0 technologies for e-government applications in Los Angeles County. Web 2.0 refers to various networked applications utilizing technologies such as application mashups, content syndication, videocasts, wikis, blogs, social networking, user tagging, social bookmarks and content, and service rating. These technologies are used to reach or attract a greater audience, thereby enhancing citizen outreach, and increasing the effectiveness of e-government applications. Nevertheless, the authors argue, the utilization of seemingly attractive technological opportunities in government is often tempered by organizational, implementation, and social responsibility constraints. The chapter presents the opportunities for Web 2.0 capabilities for Los Angeles County and discusses the factors that should be considered in the adoption and implementation of Web 2.0 in local governments.
In Chapter 26, The Obama Effect - The Perception of Campaigning 2.0 in Swedish National Election 2010, Anne Kaun and Carina Guyard present a survey study on attitudes towards political campaigning in social media. Although several studies have focused on e-democracy at a macro level, few studies have examined the phenomenon of campaigning 2.0 as perceived by the actual voters. The chapter examines the perception of political campaigning through social media by voters in the 2010 national election in Sweden. The authors' main findings are that respondents, who were already interested and politically engaged, considered campaigning 2.0 as a way to enhance democracy. Those who were neither interested nor engaged in politics showed little interest in this kind of communication. Moreover, their study confirms assumptions about digital divide and continued fragmentation of the citizenry.
PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND CITIZEN SATISFACTION
In Chapter 27, Performance Measurement and E-Reporting: Exploring Trailblazing Programs, Kathryn Kloby explores the topic of e-reporting and its potential in engaging the public in the assessment of government performance. Kloby reports that in the public sector, administrators and the agency staff often design performance measurement systems without much citizen input. Additionally, even performance reports are typically treated as internal documents without any information on how government actions impact the lives of citizens. Kloby explores how performance measurement and e-government strategies intersect resulting in the phenomenon of e-reporting, particularly with the increasing public demand for transparency and accountability in government spending and services. She presents three leading models of e-reporting in the United States: Virginia Performs, Maryland’s BayStat, and King County AIMs High, and examines their efforts in reporting performance results to the public via sophisticated e-reporting strategies.
In Chapter 28, Democracy as the Missing Link: Global Rankings of E-Governance in Southeast Asia, Jacques DM Gimeno discusses the impact of worldwide e-governance rankings on the perception of good governance, which in some cases may lead to the notion that effective e-governance, is a reflection of a truly democratic system. Gimeno's research focuses on countries in Southeast Asia that are regularly measured for good governance and the resulting difference between their ranks in effective traditional governance and e-governance provide grounds for contentious interpretation. The author specifically explores the possibility of reconciling traditional governance and e-governance. Do ICTs change the mechanics of assessing efficient delivery of services to the people, and has e-governance really enabled a genuine democratic system? Gimeno concludes with an emphasis on the inclusion of e-democracy in the discussion of e-governance in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
In Chapter 29, ICT, Unique Identity and Inclusive Growth: An Indian Perspective, Krishna Mital reviews the role of ICT and UID numbers in achieving inclusive growth, efficiently accessing public services, and achieving higher standards of livelihood and quality-of-life sustained though different welfare schemes. The government of India has recently sought to establish identity of country’s each resident including migratory population from one state to another through IT-enabled unique identification (UID) numbers under the aegis of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which shall lead to inclusive growth.
In Chapter 30, From E-Government To E-Governance: Winning People’s Trust, Mohammad Nabil Almunawar, Patrick Kim Cheng Low, Mohammad Habibur Rahman, and Fadzliwati Mohiddin discuss the various models of e-government and the differences between e-government and e-governance. They probe one of the key challenges facing e-governance today – building people’s trust in governance - and argue that good governance features must be embedded in e-government in order to build a highly trusted e-government system. The authors also analyze the different elements of trust - reputation, performance, and appearance- and propose a trust model as a guideline to develop a trusted e-governance system.