Does E-government guarantee Accountability in public Sector? Experiences in Italy and Japan

Abstract

As the cases of public sector reform and e-government projects have shown, e-government can play a role in public sector reform. The article describes Italian and Japanese e-government policy and its status, focusing on the issues raised by the government and by the public. Both countries have implemented series of political and administrative reforms in order to improve accountability. NPM reforms utilize various strategies to manage public policies, and e-government is a public policy that directly affects other policies and leads to radical and structural changes. Its characteristics as public policy are different from those of other policies, especially in relation to public accountability.