Performance Measurement and E-Reporting

Public sector performance measurement systems are often designed by high-level administrators and agency staff. In many instances performance reports are treated as internal documents or provide limited information of how government actions impact the lives of citizens or fall short of expectations. Performance measurement and reporting approaches, however, are gradually changing to include citizens in the process and to communicate results in a more robust way to the public. This chapter explores the topic of e-reporting and the potential it offers to engage the public in the assessment of government performance. Three exemplary programs are examined: Virginia Performs, Maryland’s BayStat, and King County AIMs High. Each offers useful techniques for describing program objectives, showing government progress, making data available, and exploring interactive mechanisms that support data manipulation or customization. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future areas of research.

The Internet as the Public Sphere

The Internet has often been heralded as a tool for e-governance and public action because of its ubiquity, accessibility, and the ability for users to participate in online expressions of opinion. In this chapter we discuss the potential for the Internet to function as a public space for facilitating civic engagement. While we draw from the seminal work of Jurgen Habermas to identify the preconditions for the functioning of a “public sphere,” we address four distinctly different approaches to the discussion of the Internet’s role as an effective tool for deliberative democracy by highlighting the contributions of scholars and practitioners who engaged in a dialog on the topic at a symposium held at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 2010.

ICTs for Empowerment?

In recent years, voluntary organizations and advocacy groups have become increasingly influential in the British political landscape as intermediaries between institutions and citizens. Amongst those, disability organizations constitute an important example because they seek to represent a group which has traditionally been excluded from politics. However, concerns remain with regard to the representativeness and accountability of these bodies, and therefore with the legitimacy of their role in governance. This chapter sets out to understand whether disability organizations can use the internet, and especially Web 2.0 features, to develop a more participatory relationship with disabled people1, thus becoming better democratic actors. In particular, this issue is addressed through the results of an empirical study of Scottish disability organizations’ websites. Whilst the internet seems to possess great potential against disabling barriers, findings for this study are controversial, and disabled users seem at best to be mobilized around a pre-determined agenda rather than genuinely engaged as participants.

Who Participates Now… and Why?

Two, I ask how the dimensions of complexity and salience of a policy issue affect the level of participation by different types of actors in the regulatory policy arena. Using Gormley’s (1986) framework of regulatory politics, I develop measures that attempt to capture the dimensional constructs of rule-complexity and issue-salience that might affect different actors’ levels of participation in the rulemaking process. Given the transition to the Regulations.gov platform, I test several propositions implicit to the stated equity-based mission of the George W. Bush administration’s “e-Rulemaking Initiative” (eRI). My findings indicate that these dimensions do, in part, account for the amount of activity of different types of organizations and individuals, despite a “leveling” of access across stakeholder types.

Internal Digital Divide in Organizations

In this chapter, internal digital divide problems in organizations are identified and discussed. A longitudinal case study focusing on the implementation of e-Government at a public organization in Sweden is used as a starting-point for the discussion. Although the general use of information and communication technology is very high in Sweden there are still problems with digital divide. Such problems could hamper the implementation process of e-Government. In the case study the older employees were especially stressed and had problems to renewing their competencies and adapting to new working situations due to the implementation of e-Government. Internal digital divide is, however, a complex phenomenon, and involves aspects of learning, motivation, professionalization, management strategies, and organizational culture. Some ways of bridging internal digital divide problems are discussed. Soft systems methodology could be used for analysis and change of internal digital divide aspects involving a discussion with the concerned communities.

Global Digital Divide

This chapter explores several factors of the global digital divide in the former socialist country of Mongolia. By analyzing manifest media content on the Internet, as well as by interviewing people involved in Internet development, this chapter goes beyond the question of access to the Internet and asks how language factors exacerbate the digital divide in an impoverished country. Initiating non-Western alphabet domain names and setting culturally inclusive non-Western alphabet standards have been important steps in achieving linguistic diversity on the Internet and overcoming the global digital divide in countries like Mongolia. Furthermore, this chapter explores how a post-communist political setting, aid dependency, and international organizations influence Internet development. The analysis of in-depth interviews provides nuanced explanation of the socialist legacy that is traced in institutional routines, people’s attitudes, and social practices.

The Global Digital Divide and its Impact on E-Governance

As technology has continued to advance, a disparity in the diffusion, adoption, and utilization of technology has become apparent. This chapter explores the digital divide and the scholarly research investigating the factors which have been found to influence it. The major finding from extant research is that the digital divide is largely explained by variations in national wealth. These same variations also explain differing levels of e-government readiness and e-participation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of policy choices and dilemmas posed by the digital divide.

Accessibility and Usability Issues

Democratic governments seek to serve all citizens equally and fairly. Achieving this ideal in e-governance will in large measure be determined by government’s commitment to the development of websites and web applications that encourage and enable participation by all. Accessibility and usability are gateways to participation. This chapter examines the professional and legal standards for accessibility and usability as well as studies on actual implementation. A survey of New York State webmasters found that while IT professionals considered usability and accessibility important, none of them rated user satisfaction as excellent. Agency management was perceived as less aware of the importance of usability and accessibility than IT professionals. Assuring usability and accessibility is an on-going, iterative process that requires continual accountability and involvement of user/citizens, political leaders, and IT professionals.

E-Government for Transparency in Mexico

In the last decade, Mexico’s developments regarding the recognition and protection of the right to access the government’s information has been considerable. The use of internet has been a key factor to make information available and to make citizen-government interactions easier. However, institutional, structural and behavioral factors continue to be obstacles to the effective realization of the right to information. The chapter provides a brief background to the development of e-government at the federal level and of the transparency legislation. The use of IT in the implementation of the LFTAIPG is explained and main strengths and weaknesses are identified. The main structural, institutional, and cultural limits to the use of ICTs for making the right to information effective are presented. Finally, some concluding remarks are offered in relation to the interaction between internet technologies and institutional behaviors that can thwart the efficacy of e-government as means to foster citizen engagement.

ICT, Unique Identity and Inclusive Growth

Government of India has recently sought to establish identity of country’s each resident including migratory population from one state to another through IT-enabled unique identification (UID) numbers under the aegis of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which shall lead to inclusive growth. UID numbers offer diverse benefits to each resident, such as quick opening of bank accounts, speedier issuance of passports, efficient administration of the PDS (public distribution system) for food grains at subsidized rates to the BPL (below poverty line) families by preventing ‘leakage’ to open markets, rapid enrollment to and efficient disbursal of wages under the ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)’ for guaranteed employment for every household, et cetera. The chapter reviews the role of ICT and UID numbers in achieving inclusive growth, achieving food security, augmenting employment opportunities, efficiently accessing public services, and achieving higher standards of livelihood and quality-of-life sustained though different welfare schemes.