Public administration, state administration and e-government: features of the interconnection

Abstract

The radical transformational changes taking place in Ukraine over the last few decades made a significant change in the terms that are used in the legislation. Thus, the terms "e-government", "digitalization" and "digital services" have become constant life companions of every citizen. However, one of the important things is, that in addition to the new modern terms in the legislation, the other terms are also used, which are quite outdated and should be revised. One of such terms, in our opinion, is the concept of old "state administration". Considering that this term was one of the key terms in the science of administrative law during the Soviet times, had a special purpose and specific methods of implementation, its application to modern phenomena such as e-government is completely inappropriate. Additionaly, application of this term is completely unsuccessful in view that the basis of e-government and digital transformations is democratization of relations between the state and the citizen, with the help of service components.
 Moreover, the continued use of such term in the law effectively undermines the essence of administrative reform, which has been going on in Ukraine for over 25 years. 
 The article demonstrates the comparative analysis between the terms old "state administration" and the new, modern term "public administration" in the general sense and in the field of e-government in particular. 
 The author concludes that for several important reasons, the concept of "state administration" should be replaced by a more modern concept - "public administration", which is the key term in the law of European Union for already a long time. It was emphasized that "public administration" should be the basic term on which all other legislation will be based, including, above all, laws that determine the status and powers of executive bodies and local self-government.