E‐government and the transformation of public administrations in EU countries

Abstract

Purpose The objective of this paper is to study the development of e‐government initiatives at the regional and local level in the EU through the opinion of those agents directly involved in the projects. Design/methodology/approach The authors wrote a questionnaire that was sent to the regions and the largest cities of EU countries, in order to find out their degree of involvement in e‐government initiatives. Responses were received from 47 regional and local governments. Findings At present, most regional and local governments have a web site, although in most cases it is little more than a governmental billboard. E‐government is not likely to remodel governance in the short term, since democracy initiatives are not on the present agenda of most EU countries. The survey findings show that e‐government initiatives are still predominantly non‐interactive and non‐deliberative. They tend to reflect present service delivery patterns, not transform them. Research limitations/implications The construction and management of web sites is becoming an essential element of modern public administration, but little is known about how these initiatives are being implemented. Given the substantial investment in time and other resources for governmental online initiatives, it is essential to begin to evaluate governmental web site initiatives in terms of quality and effectiveness. Originality/value This work is of value as, to date, there are very few studies that benchmark local government web sites across the EU.