Electronic Government and Electronic Civics

Abstract

Electronic government and electronic civics embrace a wide range of topics. Electronic government and electronic civics include in their purview the development, use, and implications of new practices, processes, forms and interests in government and civic life occasioned by the Internet, World Wide Web and related information and communication technologies. They are concerned with individuals and the groups they form and sustain in order to bring coherence and stability to community life. At a slightly higher level of analysis, electronic government and electronic civics take account of the use and implications of the Internet for all forms of civic engagement from the development and articulation of individual and group values and interests in public affairs to the many relationships between and among communities, the polity, and the state. With respect to formal government systems, electronic government and electronic civics encompass the use and implications of information and communication technologies in all branches of government - the legislature, executive, and judiciary - as well as at all levels of government including local, state, federal, transnational, and global. The intersection of the Internet and governance spans the traditional fields and subfields of community politics and participation as well as those of political sociology, political science, and political economy.