E-government: new concept, big challenge, success stories

Abstract

Good governance is a concept that has recently come into regular use in political science and public administration and appears to be a member of a wider group of terms such as democracy, civil society, human rights, social development. In addition, it is only recently that government policy makers have started looking at the potential of applying the tools and techniques of e-commerce to the tasks of the government. Similar to the dramatic changes in e-commerce and e-business, the e-government revolution offers the potential to reform the public sector and improve the relationship between citizens and the government. This paper aims to highlight the importance of the emergence of e-government. It gives insights to the scope of developments in this emerging field, discusses key issues and implications and reviews specific case studies and success stories in order to illustrate various modes of practice. From this paper, it becomes clear that e-government needs to and will be part of our life in the near future.