Development and Current State of E-Government in the Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

The state and its administration have been constantly confronted with profound changes, which they not only faced, but which must be shaped in order to better fulfil their diverse tasks and be able to fulfil their responsibilities. One such modern and fast-moving change is digitalization, which affects every area of life. The potential of digitalization has, of course, also affected the administrative activity of the state, from the design of optimal framework conditions for the economy and society through the improvement of infrastructure to more efficient administrative work. The aim of the article was to identify the key moments in building e-Government in Germany and, in the context of assessing its current state, to identify the main shortcomings of German e-Government. In this context, we have focused on defining and clarifying the nature of e-Government, introducing the positives and negatives. In the second part, we have focused on a brief analysis of the development and current state of implementation of the e-Government concept in Germany. The biggest shortcoming of the German public administration in terms of digitalization is the issue of effective interconnection of online services into one functioning overall system. There is still no central portal in Germany that contains all the information and service offers from a single source. It is still in the process of building. Even public registers, i.e., data collection and office archives, are not sufficiently interconnected. It requires, first and foremost, political will, an attractive range of services, initial investment as a driving force and a source of inspiration, and municipalities and Länder are also key in this process as the first points of contact for citizens