E-Government and E-Governance: Converging Constructs of Public Sector Information and Communications Technologies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The widespread usage of the Web and the Internet-as information and communication technologies (ICTs)-is a recent important public sector innovation. In general, various descriptive models present a linear progression of stages-typically, going from routine online tasks that previously required people to visit agencies and then on to higher level connections, including creation of e-democracy. In addition, observers employ e-government and e-governance interchangeably, thereby, inhibiting distinguishing between them. Alternatively, they are discrete patterns with the former stressing service delivery transactions and the latter networked participatory interactions. These developments are traceable through the history of information technology in the public sector and in the application of theories of information technology and social change. The relationship between e-government and e-governance-which can be termed the dual e-gov construct-is both asymptotic and curvilinear whose trajectories converge twice. Their second convergence produces certain unintended consequences-negative spillovers-which impact democracy detrimentally. In order to continue employing ICTs to promote citizen empowerment in government, these spillovers need to be articulated and addressed. The conclusion suggests ways to recognize the onset of these potentially harmful effects on democracy. INTRODUCTION The diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the public sector-particularly through the Internet and the World Wide Web-is now commonplace. Yet, the main implementation of ICTs, namely, as e-government and e-governance, has not been systematically differentiated. Nearly all observers treat them equivalently, not discretely. While Garson (2006) isolates them descriptively, he conflates their evolution. His explanation of four competing theories of information technology and social change, however, is useful in advancing the study of digital government. The theories provide grounding to clarify how the two electronic media are traveling different-though parallel-routes. Accordingly, employing these four conceptions-systems theory, technological determinism, sociotechnical theory, and reinforcement theory-contributes to meeting two important e-government and e-governance research objectives. The first is to explain that these electronic entities need to be operationalized as individual constructs and the other is to characterize them as comprising two curvilinear trajectories that converge twice over time. To these ends, the opening section briefly defines the four information technology and social change theories as they correlate with e-government and e-governance, for which the following section shows them as deriving from divergent trends in information technology (IT). Next, a review of prior research pinpoints that observers depict the two electronic forms as progressing linearly over various stages-in tandem as an unbroken diagonal. This view contrasts with the proposed formulation of e-government and e-governance as deploying similar technologies, while possessing unique missions. To support this alternative view, the ensuing discussion demonstrates that they do not belong to the same upward spiral, but, as noted, they generate curvilinear trajectories that converge twice. If the results of their initial convergence are untroubling, the second one is less forgiving, as it results in productive and unproductive outcomes. The conclusion suggests ways to anticipate certain of these unproductive outcomes as well as proposes areas for future investigation. FOUR INORMATION TECHNOLOGY THEORIES COUPLED TO TWO ELECTRONIC TRAJECTORIES The four information technology and social change theories are valuable guides to specify the variability between e-government and e-governance. To display this exceptionality, these theories can be coupled, joined in pairs, an approach which also reveals that both e-govs engender desirable as well as undesirable expectations. …

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