Electronic Government—mehr als eine Website

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Very often, e-Government has been defined as “e-Business of the state”. At first sight, this point of view may have a logical justification. Both use the same infrastructure and the same hardware, sometimes even the same software. However, there are clear differences between the market models of the private and public sector. These two different business models justify dealing with e-Government as a separate research area. The large scale and rapid dissemination of information and communication technologies (ICT) confront the state with challenges in two respects: On the one hand, the question arises as to how government departments want to implement the new technological possibilities in order to carry out their services. This formulation of the question is concerned with the domain of e-Government. On the other hand, in addition to the use of electronic media to fulfill its commitments government also has a more far-reaching task: e-Business and e-Government are in need of reliable basic conditions so that they can utilize their full potential. Here, the state has to intervene in a regulatory function by means of a relevant legal framework. These measures, which are supposed to have a regulatory effect on the development of electronic communication, are defined as e-Governance.