Adela Mesa and Pedro Martínez‐Monje
and the ICT. There has been much progress in identifying groups who are vulnerable to the digital divide, who are now called the digitally excluded( Martínez‐Monje y Mesa, 2010), who are: disabled people, the elderly, low‐income people, those living in rural areas and women( Plan Avanza 2011‐2015). However, as Internet penetration is reaching high levels( mainly in developed western countries) other forms of digital exclusion are being studied which are related to the knowledge and skills to use the ICT in daily life. In this case, it is not exactly an access barrier, but rather a barrier related to use, for example of certain advanced services in the Internet, like those which may be offered by the public administrations.
This dimension, analysed in the questionnaire, has been identified as one of the main barriers to the development of e‐Government. The level of preparation / training of citizens is the issue indicated as an important or very important barrier by over 60 % of those interviews. This makes it the most substantial aspect out of all of those indicated within this dimension regarding access, skills and uses of the ICT by the citizens in relation to the public administrations on the Internet.
In fact, the managers who responded to the questionnaire do not consider a barrier for the development of e‐ Government either the use or the perception of having to use the electronic services. In other words, what is really considered a challenge is the idea that the citizens still do not have the skills required to use the full potential of e‐Government. This is despite of the fact that they may be considered more or less necessary or that a greater or lesser use is made of the electronic services.
The analysis in this section is orientated towards an aspect which has already been mentioned above about the digital divide. In the case of Spain, the available data shows that there is quite wide access to Internet( 64 % of the households and 62 % by broadband) although it does not reach the European( EU27) average which is 73 % and 68 % respectively, according to the data from Eurostat( 2011). In fact, the availability of electronic public services is also very high in comparison to the offer in other neighbouring European countries. 2 As such, what could perhaps explain this limitation in the demand refers to the fact that the citizens still do not have enough technical ability or the opportunities from the market and the State itself to make use of the electronic services which have a high level of difficulty. On this matter it would also be interesting to know to what extent the above may also be a consequence of a design which is not very orientated to facilitating their use by the citizens.
2.3 E‐Government policies
The first issue faced by the different e‐Government plans in Spain( Plan Avanza and Plan Conecta, to cite the most recent) is the clash produced by any change to the civil servants’ traditional form of administration and which could lead to reactions of distrust and even rejection( Criado, 2009: 203‐232). We are referring to the different types of actors who take part in the e‐Government policies. The existence of different groups of actors( politicians, managers, ICT specialist, etc.) who come together with different interests and needs in the e‐Government policies complicates the possibility of finding a coherent and even a correct solution.
First of all, it should stressed ‐though constantly repeated‐ that the political leadership strategies are essential in order for these changes to come into fruition. At the beginning of this process, this type of policies were dependant on the interest – more personal than political – which arose in each case as it depended to a large extent on the person responsible( politician or civil servant). But a proper development of e‐Government requests a greater degree of commitment and greater formalisation. As well as this, there are also sometimes problems when it comes to implementing certain electronic services in those areas where the traditional processes comply with objective quality criteria.
On the other hand, the increased regulations in Spain, both on the level of the General State Administration and in the Autonomous Regions( Cerrillo, 2007) is complicating the handling of the electronic Administration. The systems necessary to ensure compliance with the different regulations can also act as obstacles to electronic government due to the difficulties in the development, processing or both. Recently on the other hand, e‐government development processes in the area of health are being linked to budget cuts in the sector
2 A study carried out by the Capgemini consultancy firm for the Orange Foundation indicated that out of 26 selected online services, the availability percentage in the Autonomous Regions was 76 % in 2011. Available in http:// www. informeeespana. es / docs / Estudio _ Comparativo _ 2011 _ Servicios _ on _ line. pdf
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