Towards a Socio‐Political Foundation of e‐Government
Dimitris Christodoulakis 1 Natassa Xarcha 2, George Sourmelis 2 and George Stylios 3 1 Database Laboratory, Computer Engineering & Informatics Dept. University of Patras,
Greece 2 Union of Hellenic Chambers of Commerce, Athens, Greece 3 Technical Educational Institute of Ionian Islands, Lefkada, Greece
dxri @ upatras. gr nxarcha @ gmail. com george @ ibn. gr gstylios @ yahoo. gr
Abstract: A majority of e‐Government programs have developed in many countries in order to obtain benefits and good governance. However, many projects fail as a result of a lack of understanding about the relationships between social trends, political and economic contexts and organizational factors. The paper draws a governance model and the basic principles of good governance. Then, we deploy our model using dynamic systems techniques. Through simple analogies we draw conclusions on good e‐Government. We prove that excellent knowledge of technical issues is not enough to have good e‐Government applications. Good e‐Government requires versatile knowledge primarily of government issues. Policyand decision makers should overcome overconfidence concerning the use of electronic media in government and respect the institutions of civil society, business, the media, history, tradition, culture and technology.
Keywords: e‐government, governance, public policies, system dynamics, modeling
1. Introduction
Electronic government( e‐gov) has been recognized as a powerful strategy for government transformation. Governments around the world have developed e‐Government programs in order to obtain important benefits such as cost savings, improved service quality, increased accountability, and more public participation, among others. However, many e‐Government projects were characterized as failures. Some of such failures are the result of a lack of understanding about the way technologies, information use, organizational factors, institutional arrangements, and socio‐economic contexts are involved and affect e‐Government development process.
Before turning to our main subject, it will be appropriate to notice briefly the notions of government and governance.
According to Oxford English Dictionary( Oxford 2012), governance is defined as“ the action or manner of governing.” Government is determined as“ the governing body of a nation, state or community.” According to the same dictionary government controls:
• The system by which a nation, state, or community is governed;
• The action or manner of controlling or regulating a nation, organization, or people;
• The group of people in office at a particular time.
Obviously governance is not synonymous with government( Graham 2003).“ Governance determines how governments and other social organizations interact, how they relate to citizens, and how decisions are taken in a complex world( Graham 2003).” Former UN Secretary‐General Kofi Annan noted at the end of the preceding century:“ good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development”( Kofi Annan 1998).
In 2003 the Commission of the European Communities determined e‐Government as“ the use of information and communication technologies in public administrations combined with organizational change and new skills in order to improve public services and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies”( Commission 2003). Taking into account the above definitions of government and governance, it is obvious that e‐Government enables possible ways in order to achieve good governance. Paraphrasing the above wellcited quote of Kofi Annan, we would like consider e‐Government as the use of electronic tools( information
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