Virgil Stoica and Andrei Ilas
income, education, age, race and ethnicity( Mossberger, 2003). It appears that men tend to use the Internet more than women, although gender is not reflected in an Internet access divide( Fallows, 2005). However, when compared with the literature dedicated to cities, especially the large ones, research on rural e‐ Government is only at the beginning.
2. Research on rural e‐Government
Rural e‐Government can be defined as the digital interaction between government and the citizens living in rural areas, as well as the businesses and other governmental agencies operating in the same area. In fact, rural e‐Government is a part of e‐Government and should always be included in any definition of e‐ Government. However, from a practical point of view, rural e‐Government raises specific issues, especially in th ose societies where the divide between cities and villages is still in place.
The literature is rather scarce when it comes to rural e‐Government. Several reasons may be behind this situation. Firstly, rural e‐Government could appear a less appealing research theme when compared with national, urban or large cities e‐Government. Secondly, a large majority of the global rural population lives in poor countries where even basic Internet access is problematic. Thirdly, the population of well‐developed countries living in rural areas has declined over the years, with the differences betw een rural and urban being le ss noticeable. Finally, there is a surprising lack of e‐Government official data on rural areas.
The few existing scientific papers on e‐rural government depict the same image: a significant digital divide between rural and urban areas, especially in developing countries where access to Internet represents a problem( Mahan, 2007). But beyond this general image, the studies on rural e‐Government do not fall into the same categories. For instance, the study of e‐Government in a small Japanese village led the author to the conclusion that the local authorities are right to configure e‐Government“ to address local need”( Thompson, 2002). Similarly, the authors of a paper on governmental actor’ s behaviour in rural Texas courts drew attention to the importance of adapting e‐Government to the mandate and responsibilities of the local actors( Doty and Erdelez, 2002). An article on small US municipalities( less than 100,000 in population) concluded that“ e‐ Government adoption is a function of financial, technical, and human resources”( Schwester, 2011). The authors of a UK comparative study suggested that citizens’ background is the main obstacle in accessing e‐ Government services offered by a city, while the geographic location of a village is a deterrent to offering quality e‐Government services altogether( Choudrie et al., 2005). We were unable to identify other scientific p apers regarding rural e‐Government in European Union countries.
To look at successful rural e‐Government projects, two countries – India and Australia, both with important parts of their population living in rural or remote areas – are usually mentioned in the literature. In India, where approximately 70 % of over the one billion population is living in rural areas, the projects are mostly regional and they are aimed at helping farmers to sell their products, obtain information or establish contact over the Internet( Gorla, 2007). Australia has a relatively small rural population of 2.3 million but scattered all over its immense territory( UN, 2010). In Australia the government launched two initiatives in the area of e‐ Government health: Health‐Insite, a public portal that provides health related in formation, and Australian C hildhood Immunisation Register, a national electronic database( Henman, 2010).
Taking into consideration the suggestions and conclusions found in the literature, a new study on rural e‐ Government is proposed to weigh up the importance of different factors such as the economic development of a country, the national or regional policies, the size and location of the village or its financial, technical and human resources. Being the first of its kind, our research has the more limited goal of assessing the level of Romanian rural e‐Government.
3. Romanian e‐Government
Romania joined the European Union( EU) on 1 st January 2007. In order to be admitted in the EU and, later on, as a Member State, Romania had to comply with EU policies on e‐Gov ernment development by adopting laws, e stablishing national agencies and implementing national strategies.
Despite wide legislation, an important number of governmental agencies, and generous national policies, the e‐Government in Romania is in an early stage of development( Stoica and Ilas, 2012). The e‐Romania website designed to offer citizens access to all national and local administrative services is still inactive four years after
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