The Myth of E-Government

Abstract

The idea of e-government is spread at a rapid rate. In almost the entire world governments are attempting to adapt to the suggested changes which implies that e-government has become a global phenomenon. We suggest that the idea of e-government is best understood as a mythologised megatrend. It has become a symbol for the modernised government of today. A symbol which, in some sense, has to be demythologized in order to to be able to be realised. It is argued that it is possible to gain further insights into, and tools to cope with, the gap between myth and reality by differentiate between general and specific interpretations of the idea. By analysing these interpretations the myth can be partially unravelled, which is illustrated by a large scale study based on 2,624 employees in public administration. The result indicates a loose coupling between the general and the specific level.

Only for Citizens? Local Political Engagement in Sweden and Inclusiveness of Terms

“…By contrast, e-democracy offers more active forms of public participation and engagement in decision making (for example [39,44,51]. Using this distinction, local authorities seem to be more interested in e-government than e-democracy; they primarily link the advantages of ICT with municipal service provision, for example, local authorities' websites provide information about services and self-service [52,53].…”

Three eGovernments Living Happily Ever After

“…This as if status is central since it shows the contingent status of the fixation of meanings; they are possible but not necessary (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002). This point of departure is argued to be very appropriate in order to perform a study that critically analyses the sometimes claimed mythical features of eGovernment (Bekkers, 2007;Lindblad-Gidlund & Giritli-Nygren, 2009) and disentangle and deconstruct the eGovernment construct that has been criticized to be either empty, old or inherently conflicting (Melin, 2009, Grönlund, 2010.…”

“…One way of trying to capture the process of making eGovernment policies into practice is to adopt traditional organisational theories such as for example the one by Karl Weick (Weick, 1995), stating that the main objective for practitioners on different levels is to translate and enact visions, policies and catchy wordings into something doable (e.g. Giritli-Nygren & Lindblad-Gidlund, 2009;Gidlund, 2012a, Gidlund, 2012b. This kind of analysis shows that at the practitioners level, it is no longer possible to continue talking without linking 'what is talked about' to 'what is made'; what is talked about is unavoidably to be translated into different available resources, methods and tools in order to perform and make what is talked about into reality.…”