E-Government

Abstract

Pairing two terms such as “electronic” and “government” to name a phenomenon and create the label of “electronic government” was the signature of the early days of the Internet and web in the 1990s, which also witnessed similar creations such as “electronic business,” “electronic commerce,” and “electronic democracy,” among others. In those early days, labeling something “electronic” was meant to suggest modern, novel, and future-oriented undertakings supported by information and communication technology (ICT). None of these labels emanated from any academic discourse or research, but rather they evolved and were promoted from within ICT vendor and trade press communities. Another and equivalent label for “electronic government” is “digital government,” which was and has remained popular in North America. Both terms have been used interchangeably. Academia blessed the terms “electronic government” (EG) and “digital government” (DG) only later, by providing definitions that attempted to capture the ideas of modernizing government, fostering participation, and improving services by means of novel ICTs. One definition, which in 2006 was also adopted by the Digital Government Society, reads, “Electronic government is the use of information technology to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide government services.” Over the years and since its recognizable beginnings in the late 1990s, the multidisciplinary study domain of e-government has formed around these themes and has produced a sizable and well-respected body of knowledge at the intersection of the public sphere, including public administration, information, and information technology as well as individual, group, and institutional stakeholders’ needs and wants in this particular context. The study domain qua definition spans several traditional disciplines. Consequently, no single discipline has claimed or can claim sole ownership of the domain as its academic “home turf.” Hence, as a multidisciplinary domain of study, EG needed almost a decade to establish its unique outlets of publication, which were then recognized also from the vantage points of contributing disciplines such as Public Administration, Political Science, Management Information Systems Research, Information Science, Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction Research, and others. One challenge for any multidisciplinary study domain such as EG is that the contributing disciplines may base their work on different standards of inquiry and norms of publication. Hence, what may count as good research in one discipline may not be equally acceptable in another discipline. However, although a niche domain of study to these contributing disciplines, over the years EG has successfully overcome this particular challenge and has established a widely recognized academic footprint and a reputation of high quality in research, which also enjoys high relevance to practice.