Grey Hair, Grey Matter, and ICT Policy in the Global South

By exploring the case of Ghana, this chapter examines the often cited linkages between good governance, ICTs, and development in developing societies. Though some significant ICT-related infrastructural development projects have been undertaken in Africa, the empirics indicate that the region, compared to other regions, such as Asia, has yet to experience the expected results. Using an e-government project at the presidency in Ghana as a case study, this chapter attempts to understand why the vast potential benefits of ICTs have not been realized in countries like Ghana. The argument put forward by the author is that e-government and by extension ICT policy outcomes in developing polities must be understood as partly a reflection of the world view of policy elites, which is at best generally antagonistic, ambivalent, and even apprehensive of the very notion of a cyber society. The chapter concludes with recommendations relevant to Ghana and other developing polities.

Combating Corruption through e-Governance in India

Studies have shown a prevalence of high level of corruption in the Indian Administrative System, which adversely affects the day-to-day lives of common citizens. This chapter examines the role of e-governance in combating corruption in delivering public services. Through a literature review assessing the outcomes of a few e-governance initiatives related to improving service delivery in different parts of India, this chapter argues that even though technology assists in instituting a transparent, accountable, consistent, reliable, and efficient system for delivery services, it cannot overcome corruption by itself. It will require political will, focused administrative strategy, business process reengineering for simplifying and opening up the system, and persistent efforts to ensure that corruption entrepreneurs do not subvert the gains of the technology.

From E-Government to E-Governance in Europe

The influence of e-government on the modernization and growth of public sector initiatives in Europe has been deeply claimed. Little is known, however, about how the so-called shift from e-government to e-governance takes place in European governments. This chapter presents a view of both challenges and advantages of implementing e-governance strategies, by examining how closely and critically intertwined e-government and e-governance are in European countries.

Key Success Domains for Business-IT Alignment in Cross-Governmental Partnerships

Business-IT alignment is a crucial concept in the understanding of how profit-and-loss organizations use Information Technology (IT) to support their business requirements. This alignment concept becomes tangled when it is addressed in a socio-political context with non-financial goals and political agendas between independent organizations, i.e., in governmental settings. Collaborative problem-solving and coordination mechanisms are enabling government agencies to deal with such a complex alignment. In this chapter, the authors propose to consider four key domains for successful business-IT alignment in cross-governmental partnerships: partnering structure, IS architecture, process architecture, and coordination. Their choice of domains is based on three case studies carried out in cross-governmental partnerships, in Mexico, The Netherlands, and Canada, respectively. The business-IT alignment domains presented in this chapter can guide cross-governmental partnerships in their efforts to achieve alignment. Those domains are still open to further empirical confirmation or refutation. Although much more research is required on this important topic for governments, the authors hope that their study contributes to the pool of knowledge in this relevant research stream.

Core Values

In this chapter, e-Government and national cultures of the island republic of Singapore and the Sultanate of Negara Brunei Darussalam (henceforth Brunei), both small countries, are examined. The authors discuss the salient core values in the two national cultures that enable e-Government to be successfully implemented or at least have the right ingredients to be successful.

From Town Hall to the Virtual Community

Engaging the public is a vital component of the public policy process. Traditional strategies for civic engagement include town hall meetings as well as citizen surveys, 311 call systems, and more interactive meetings for public deliberation. Each of these approaches has their limitations, leading many to consider new ways of engaging the public and the role that technology can play in the process. The authors focus on a discussion of the traditional citizen engagement approaches that are widely used by government to communicate with and interact with the public. Focusing on new interactive media, they discuss what is meant by “Web 2.0” and present the capabilities and potential applications of social media in the public sector. Highlighting government programs that utilize these technologies and interviewing subject-matter experts on this new form of communication, the authors present some of the adoption concerns and implementation strategies that public administrators should consider as they adopt Web 2.0 technologies. They conclude with a discussion of the potential that these new civic engagement techniques can offer the public sector as strategies to communicate, interact, and engage the public.

Understanding E-Governance

Another new paradigm shift is in the offing and slowly becoming distinct from the amorphous shape of public administration. It is the ICT-blessed governance, or e-Governance. The adoption of ICTs and the new approach to management in symbiosis are e-Governance. E-governance speaks of a new way and style in every beat and pulse of the system of public administration. It brings about changes in the structure and functions of public services, ushering transformation through effectively engaging the government, businesses, and citizens—all stakeholders. It not only ensures efficiency in public service delivery but also offers unlimited potential to combat corruption and many other bureau-pathologies in the public administration system. Based on secondary sources, this chapter offers brief theoretical discussions of e-governance, including its emergence, types of service delivery, transformation stages, and relevant other issues.

From e-Government to e-Governance

In this chapter, the authors elaborate on the concepts of e-Government and e-Governance and place these concepts in the broader context of the introduction and diffusion of information and communication technologies. The question that is being addressed is “what should an effective and pro-active e-Government do?” For that purpose, the ICTs are not only considered general purpose technologies, but recognized as the driving force of an unfolding technological revolution. As such, a recurrent pattern in techno-economic and socio-economic development can be discerned that goes back to the First Industrial Revolution in Britain around the late 1700s and early 1800s. It is argued that appreciating the fifth instance of this pattern and recognizing the challenges each transition invokes can inform the policy formation process and make policy action more effective. In the broader context of roles that governments may assume, a stepwise approach is introduced to address the many challenges the diffusion of ICTs is bringing about in the economic and social realm, aimed at reaping the benefits implied in the new techno-economic paradigm.

A Positive Hegemony?

Amlan Bhusan raises important questions in “A Positive Hegemony? Arguing for a Universal Knowledge Regime led by an e-Governance ‘Savvy’ Global Knowledge Enterprise!” To him, there is a growing academic consciousness, regarding the use of e-governance, to deliver social goods in a better way. This voice advocates that more needs to be done by public institutions, governments, and more importantly, the academia, to develop e-governance as an enabler for social efficiency. Such developments would help reach debates and discussions on this area to the grassroots of the policy system. His chapter is neither a commentary of the application of e-governance to deliver social change nor a study of how different governments have handled this area around the world. Rather, it is a practicing consultant’s views of the power of e-governance to refine public choice and social decision making and how this process was enriched by a more vigorous role of the academia. Taking specific examples from the education sector, particularly universities, this chapter is a comment on some of the ways in which e-governance ‘can’ be handled across the education system and how lessons from the developed countries can be used to inspire similar revolutionary changes to the status quo in the developing world. His objective is to promote a greater role for the academia in the public policy making process. The idea is to support a more constructive engagement of the academia with the more vulnerable parts of the social system. Above all, he argues for the benefits of spreading the values of information democracy, right to access to information, among the people. He envisages that the power of a more vocal and active academia would be profound in how it could positively affect the information apartheid affecting many large sections of the developing world. He proposes greater research and development on the means of engaging with e-governance and to establish the mechanisms to enhance, converge, simplify, homogenize, and structuralize the knowledge and information enterprise of the global political and social systems.

E-Government in Bangladesh

In this chapter, the authors delineate the overall policy and institutional framework of e-government from the perspective of Bangladesh. Recognizing the current government’s attempt at branding the country as “Digital Bangladesh,” the authors explore major e-government programs and initiatives in operation. Most importantly, they eloquently elaborate on the constraints and challenges facing Bangladesh in its pursuit of electronic governance and also shed light on the way forward.