Electronic State Services from the Government's and Citizens' Standpoint

Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of officials' and citizens' concept of government and services, based on strategic documents and legal acts, including federal laws, decrees of the President of RF and orders of the Government of RF that accompany and regulate the transition to electronic in Russia, as well as on the results of sociological surveys conducted in the Sverdlovsk Region in 2010 and 2015. Institutional approach to information technologies adoption in public administration is employed to analyse the talk which is used to describe e-government transition at the level of public authorities. means that adoption of information technologies must entail fundamental changes in the relations between the citizens and the government. Rupture talks support institutional legitimation of the relevant bodies. The need in legitimation gives rise to constant reproduction of rupture talk, and result in variability of e-services interpretation, up to total replacement of the initial meaning, dictated by strategic and tactical considerations. At the same time, the citizens themselves carry out operationalisation of the government by other means. They use new ways of interaction with the for solution of conventional problems. Even though they express willingness to use the e-services, real decisions are made at the situational level -- they choose whether to use the new or old rules depending on the significance of the particular problem. Electronic interaction is perceived by them as secondary, ancillary, providing no fundamental change in their relations with the public officials.