---
authors:
- Charlie
contributors:
- Charlie
date: 2022-10-04 00:00:00
summary: E-government (short for electronic government) is the use of technology,
 such as computers and the internet, to provide public services to citizens and other
 persons in a country or region. E-government is also known as e-gov, electronic
 government, internet governance, digital government, online government, or connected
 government. Examples of e-government services can include using the internet for
 applying for government issued identification documents (such as a birth certificate),
 updating government records (for example, changing a residential address), or completing
 a tax return. E-government should enable anyone visiting a city website to communicate
 and interact with city employees via the Internet with graphical user interfaces
 (GUI), instant-messaging (IM), learn about government issues through audio/video
 presentations, and in any way more sophisticated than a simple email letter to the
 address provided at the site
title: E-Government
---

## Summary

E-government (short for electronic government) is the use of technology,
such as computers and the internet, to provide public services to
citizens and other persons in a country or region.

E-government is also known as e-gov, electronic government, internet
governance, digital government, online government, or connected
government.

Examples of e-government services can include using the internet for
applying for government issued identification documents (such as a birth
certificate), updating government records (for example, changing a
residential address), or completing a tax return.

E-government should enable anyone visiting a city website to communicate
and interact with city employees via the Internet with graphical user
interfaces (GUI), instant-messaging (IM), learn about government issues
through audio/video presentations, and in any way more sophisticated
than a simple email letter to the address provided at the site

## Terminology and Concepts

### Transformational Governance

**Transformational government** or also **transformational
e-government** is the use of computer-based information and
communications technologies (ICT) to change the way governments work.
The term is commonly used to describe a government reform strategy which
attempts to radically change the way people understand government,
especially those working within government. For example, it is often
associated with a *whole-of-government* viewpoint, which tries to foster
cross-department collaboration and provide *one-stop-shop* convenience
in the delivery of services to citizens.

### Government 2.0

Government 2.0 or Gov 2.0 refers to government policies that aim to
harness collaborative technologies and interactive internet tools to
create an open-source computing platform in which government, citizens,
and innovative companies can improve transparency and efficiency.

Gov 2.0 combines interactive Web 2.0 fundamentals with e-government and
increases citizen participation by using open-source platforms, which
allow development of innovative apps, websites, and widgets. The
government's role is to provide open data, web services, and platforms
as an infrastructure.

### E-governance

Whilst e-government has traditionally been understood as being centered
around the operations of government, e-governance is understood to
extend the scope by including citizen engagement and participation in
governance. E-governance uses ICT as a tool to achieve better
governance.

E-governance focuses on:

- The use of information and communication technologies (ICT), and
 particularly the internet, as a tool to achieve better
 government.
- The use of information and communication technologies in all facets of
 the operations of a government organization.
- The continuous optimization of service delivery, constituency
 participation, and governance by transforming internal and external
 relationships through technology, the Internet and new media.

## Delivery models

The primary delivery models of e-government can be divided into:

- Government-to-citizen or government-to-consumer (G2C) approaches. Such
 as setting up websites where citizens can download forms or access
 government information.
 - The G2C model applies the business concept and strategy of customer
 relationship management (CRM). By managing a government's "customer"
 (citizen) relationship, the business (government) can provide the
 products and services required to fulfill the needs of the customer
 (citizen).
- Government-to-business (G2B)
- Government-to-government (G2G)
- Government-to-employees (G2E)

Within each of these interaction domains, four kinds of activities take
place:

- publishing information on the internet, e.g.: regulatory services,
 general holidays, public hearing schedules, issue briefs,
 notifications, etc.
- two-way communications between a government agency and the citizen, a
 business, or another government agency. In this model, users can
 engage in dialogue with agencies and post problems, comments, or
 requests to the agency.
- conducting transactions, e.g.: lodging tax returns, applying for
 services and grants.
- governance, e.g.: To enable the citizen transition from passive
 information access to active citizen participation by:

1. Informing the citizen
2. Representing the citizen
3. Encouraging voting
4. Consulting citizens

## Advantages and Disadvantages

### Advantages

The ultimate goal of the e-government is to be able to offer an
increased portfolio of public services to citizens in an efficient and
cost-effective manner.

E-government allows for government transparency. Government transparency
is important because it allows the public to be informed about what the
government is working on as well as the policies they are trying to
implement.

Simple tasks may be easier to perform through electronic government
access. Many changes to a citizen's government records, such as marital
status or address changes can be a long process and take a lot of
paperwork for citizens. E-government allows these tasks to be performed
efficiently with more convenience to individuals.

E-government is an easy way for the public to be more involved in
political campaigns. It can increase voter awareness, which could lead
to an increase in citizen participation in elections.

It is convenient and cost-effective for businesses, and the public
benefits by providing easy access to the most current information
available without having to spend time, energy and money to access it.

E-government helps simplify processes and makes government information
more easily accessible for public sector agencies and citizens.

The anticipated benefits of e-government include efficiency, improved
services, better accessibility of public services, sustainable community
development and more transparency and accountability.

#### Democratization

One goal of some e-government initiatives is greater citizen
participation. Through Web 2.0 interactive features, people from all
over the country can provide input to politicians or public servants and
make their voices heard. Blogging and interactive surveys allow
politicians or public servants to see the views of the people on any
issue. Chat rooms can place citizens in real-time contact with elected
officials or their office staff or provide them with the means to
interact directly with public servants, allowing voters to have a direct
impact and influence in their government. These technologies can create
a more transparent government, allowing voters to immediately see how
and why their representatives in the capital are voting the way they
are. This helps voters decide whom to vote for in the future or how to
help the public servants become more productive.

A government could theoretically move more towards a democracy more
responsive to citizen's wishes with the proper application of
e-government. Government transparency provides an insight to the public
on how decisions are made and can help hold elected officials or public
servants accountable for their actions.

#### Environmental bonuses

Proponents of e-government argue that online government services would
lessen the need for hard copy paper forms. Due to recent pressures
from environmentalist groups, the media, and the public, some
governments and organizations have turned to the internet to reduce
paper use. For example the United States of America's government
utilizes the website forms.gov to provide "internal government forms for
federal employees" and thus "produce significant savings in paper.


Applying for government services online also reduces the need for
citizens to drive to a government office, reducing congestion on roads.

#### Speed, efficiency, and convenience

E-government allows citizens to interact with computers to achieve
objectives at any time or location. It eliminates the necessity for
physical travel to meet government agents.

Most e-government services are available to citizens with internet
access 24 hours a day and seven days a week, in contrast to brick and
mortar government offices, which tend to be only open during business
hours.

Improved accounting and record-keeping can be noted through
computerization. Information and forms can be easily accessed by
citizens, which may enable quicker processing time for applications and
to find information.

On the administrative side, access to help find or retrieve files and
linked information can now be stored in electronic databases versus hard
copies (paper copies) stored in various locations.

Individuals with disabilities or conditions that affect their mobility
do not have to travel to a physical location in order to interact with
government services.

#### Public approval

Recent trials of e-government have been met with acceptance and
eagerness from the public.

### Disadvantages

The main disadvantage concerning e-government is the existence of a
digital divide and digital inequalities that prevent people from
accessing the full benefits of e-government. When presented as the only
option to access an essential government service, those who do not have
access a computer and the internet, or do not have adequate knowledge on
how to use them suffer.

Other disadvantages include the reliability of information on the web
and issues that could influence and bias public opinions. There are many
considerations and potential implications of implementing and designing
e-government, including disintermediation of the government and its
citizens, digital self-determination of citizens in a global internet
network, impacts on economic, social, and political factors,
vulnerability to cyber attacks, and disturbances to the *status quo* in
these areas.

The political nature of public sector forms are also cited as
disadvantages to e-government systems.

#### Cost

E-government systems may be expensive to design and implement.

Although "a prodigious amount of money has been spent "on the
development and implementation of e-government, some say it has yielded
only a mediocre result. The outcomes and effects of trial
Internet-based government services are often difficult to gauge or users
find them unsatisfactory. According to Gartner, Worldwide IT
spending is estimated to total \$3.6 trillion in 2011 which is 5.1%
increase from the year 2010 (\$3.4 trillion).

#### Development

Because E-government is in the early stages of development in many
countries and jurisdictions, it is hard to be applied to forms of
government that have been institutionalized. Age-old bureaucratic
practices being delivered in new mediums or using new technologies can
lead to problems of miscommunication.

#### False sense of transparency and accountability

Opponents of e-government argue that online governmental transparency is
dubious because it is maintained by the governments themselves.
Information can be added or removed from the public eye. To this day,
very few organizations monitor and provide accountability for these
modifications. Those that do so, like the United States’ OMBWatch and
Government Accountability Project, are often nonprofit volunteers.
Even the governments themselves do not always keep track of the
information they insert and delete.

#### Hyper-surveillance

Increased electronic contact and data exchange between government and
its citizens goes both ways. Once e-government technologies become more
sophisticated, citizens will be likely be encouraged to interact
electronically with the government for more transactions, as e-services
are much less costly than brick and mortar service offices (physical
buildings) staffed by civil servants. This could potentially lead to a
decrease in privacy for civilians as the government obtains more and
more information about their activities. Without safeguards, government
agencies might share information on citizens. In a worst-case scenario,
with so much information being passed electronically between government
and civilians, a totalitarian-like system could develop. When the
government has easy access to countless information on its citizens,
personal privacy is lost.

#### Inaccessibility

An e-government website that provides government services often does not
offer the "potential to reach many users including those who live in
remote areas [without Internet access], are homebound, have low
literacy levels, exist on poverty line incomes." Homeless people,
people in poverty and elderly people may not have access.

#### Trust

Trust in e-governance is very highly dependent on its performance and
execution, which can be measured through the effectiveness of current
actions. This is much riskier and prone to fluctuation than a system of
trust that is based on reputation because performance does not consider
past actions.

With the automation of institutionalized government services, trust can
go both ways: both in the trust that people have for the government, and
the trust the government places in its people. In the case of Indiana’s
automated welfare system, the less skilled call center workers defaulted
their decisions to the automated system and favored solutions that best
fit the system rather than the people. When too much trust is put in
e-governance, errors and mistakes are not caught.

## UN e-Government Development Index

The Division of a Public Administration and Development Management
(DPAPM) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UN-DESA) conducts a bi-annual e-government survey which includes a
section titled *e-Government Development Index (EGDI)*. It is a
comparative ranking of 193 countries of the world according to three
primary indicators: i) the OSI - Online Service Index that measures the
online presence of the government in terms of service delivery; ii) the
TII - Telecommunication Infrastructure Index iii) HCI -Human Capital
Index. Constructing a model for the measurement of digitized services,
the Survey assesses the 193 member states of the UN according to a
quantitative composite index of e-government readiness based on website
assessment; telecommunication infrastructure and human resource
endowment.

A diverse group of 100 researchers online volunteers from across the
globe engaged with the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs (UN
DESA) to process 386 research surveys carried out across 193 UN Member States
for the 2016 UN E-Government Survey. More than 65 languages, 15 nationalities,
of which half are from developing countries, mirror the mission of the survey.

The survey has been criticized not including an index of digital
inclusion levels.

## Sources and further reading

- Wikipedia: [E-government](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-government) — the primary source for much of this page's content
- Deloitte Research – Public Sector Institute, [At the Dawn of e-Government: The Citizen as Customer](https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/pdfs/e-government.pdf), 2000 (archived — original domain decommissioned)


## See also

- [Radical Transparency](radical-transparency.md)
- [Consensus Mapping](consensus-mapping.md)
- [End-to-End Verifiable Voting System](end-to-end-verifiable-voting-system.md)
- [Issue-Based Direct Democracy](issue-based-direct-democracy.md)
- [vTaiwan](../organisations/vtaiwan.md)
- [Code for Australia](../organisations/code-for-australia.md)
- [NewVote](../organisations/newvote.md)
- [mySociety](../organisations/mysociety.md)
- [Decidim](../organisations/decidim.md)
- [Liquid Democracy e.V.](../organisations/liquid-democracy-ev.md)
- [Citizen OS](../organisations/citizen-os.md)
