E-Government in the Context of State Reform in Brazil

In this chapter, we examine key elements of state reform and the importance of e-government as a tool for increased civic participation and effectiveness. Brazil is taken as an example. We outline the political process behind state reform in Brazil and the importance of e-government in this construction. The successful case of the income-tax system and the problem of the digital divide are briefly discussed. Finally, we conclude considering the possibility of a civic participation strategy in the promotion of a sustainable process of state restructuring.

Electronic Delivery of Public Services to Citizens

The main goal of the EU @LIS demonstration project Electronic Government Innovation and Access (eGOIA) is the provisioning of demonstrators that show future-oriented public-administration services to a broad public in Latin America. The vision of the eGOIA project is the provision of a single virtual space supporting the interaction of citizens (independent of social status, gender, race, abilities, and age) and the public administration in a simple, future-oriented, and cost-effective way. A software infrastructure is developed in order to allow the access of citizens through the Internet to integrated public services at several levels: local government (municipalities), regional government (state), and federal government. The trial of the demonstrator will be performed in São Paulo state and in municipalities in Peru.

E-Government in Latin American Cities

This chapter examines e-government practices in Latin American cities. Emphasis is placed on five areas: privacy and security, usability, content, services, and citizen participation. In Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide, Holzer and Kim (2004) evaluated e-government in the largest municipality in each of 100 countries. Included in this study were the largest cities in 15 Latin American countries. This chapter focuses on these 15 cities, highlighting those that received the highest overall index score. In addition, five cities with above-average scores in the five e-government component areas are assessed. Although this chapter does not take into consideration all e-government practices in Latin America, it does provide benchmark cases for cities in the Latin American region.

E-Government Strategy in Brazil

The role of SIASG/Comprasnet in promoting efficiency and transparency in government procurement (GP) in Brazil has generated great interest in the international scenario of e-commerce and in the transformation of public administration, related to the e-government initiative. Several international organizations and some national governments have elected this experience as a best practice in e-government in the government-to-business (G2B) classification. Some of the innovations implemented by the system are the use of the e-reverse auction (e-RA) and the publishing of information of all the phases of the tendering process. This chapter has the aim of analyzing the results obtained by the Brazilian government strategy in the use of a specifically developed e-government procurement (e-GP) system (http://www.comprasnet.gov.br). It is composed of a structuring system, operated internally by the government, coupled with a Web interface for suppliers and the general public that covers the whole GP cycle (including post-award contract administration) of commodities (sundries and standard quality goods and services). The analyzed e-GP application accounts for expenditures of around $8.5 billion. This amount is equivalent to 15% of the budget (1.5% of GDP).

Defining and Measuring E-Democracy

The aim of this chapter is to define and to measure electronic democracy. In order to achieve this purpose, first, different conceptual perspectives about the interconnection between new information and communication technologies and democratic institutions are described. Second, a definition of electronic democracy and its relationship with classical theories on representative democracy is provided. Third, with this description, an index to measure the stage of development of electronic democracy in a given political system is developed. Fourth, the index is tested in some Latin American municipalities. Finally, with the obtained results, some conclusions about the level and nature of electronic-democracy implementation in the region are described. The chapter adopts an institutional approach to understand the impact of ICTs on institutions that illustrates how difficult defining and measuring this reality can get.

The Argentine IT Professionals Forum

This chapter introduces the experience of the Argentine IT Professionals Forum (ITPF) that enriches the definition of processes involving the tasks of e-government. The ITPF has become a cross-agency network that involves all the IT professionals of the public administration. It was created in 2002 as a response to the institutional crisis in Argentina in order to solve problems associated with the IT areas. The most important contribution of the ITPF is the basis for the back office as an interesting management model, theoretically known as “communities of practice” (CoPs) and networks, which have become core organizational tools as far as carrying out difficult innovation processes, such as the development of free software, cross-agency applications, and interoperability. However, traditional government structures have found it hard to deal with this kind of processes. Among the specific tasks involved, it is worthwhile mentioning the development of suitable software, the creation of cross-agency consensus, the generation of institutional networks, and so forth.

An Exploratory Study of Electronic Government and State Portals in Mexico

Many governments have embraced the information revolution by developing information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve services to citizens. In Mexico, the number of government Web sites has increased from none in 1994 to about 2,800 in 2005. However, there is relatively little research about Mexican government portals. This chapter preliminarily evaluates the quality and functionality of four state government portals in Mexico. It also analyzes their evolution from 2002 to 2005 and uncovers some general trends. In general, Mexican state government portals seem to be mainly information catalogs with some transactional capabilities. However, the observed portals show a pattern of transitioning to a more user-centered design and integrating more electronic services. In addition, Mexican state portals show an increasing concern for transparency and citizen participation.

Tracking E-Government in South America

The existing disparity regarding the achievements of electronic-government development in the Southern Cone area is owed to implementation processes characterized by the coexistence of organizational isomorphism patterns along with each country’s own institutional framework. Insofar as electronic government was developed within the public administration’s modernization processes, and that said processes were financed almost entirely by international credit institutions, there is a similarity among the different strategies implemented; the same responds to a middle-level policy transfer process. However, institutional environments have exerted a decisive influence on the effective implementation of the original schemes, thus determining significant differences regarding the impacts of each policy. This chapter develops this perspective, understanding that acknowledgement of this path covered may contribute to adapting strategies to the frameworks in which they have been introduced, thus fostering amortization of resources invested, survival of initiatives, and use of electronic-government benefits in the construction of an efficient and transparent public administration open to citizens.

A Comparative Analysis of E-Government in Latin America

This chapter introduces the United Nations global e-government readiness reports, for which we serve as primary researchers, with particular focus on Latin America. The UN reports provide useful composite scores and rankings on 191 countries worldwide with respect to e-government, e-readiness, and e-participation, as well as highlighting best practices that have been identified throughout the world. In particular, the UN reports provide meaningful insights into the development of e-government in Latin America—facilitating comparative analysis between regions, as well as country comparisons within Latin America.Basing itself on the UN report, the chapter provides a comparative analysis of e-government in Latin America—both intra- and interregional comparisons—with the main objective of elevating e-government literature to a more quantitatively rigorous and sophisticated level. This chapter aims at introducing the UN report, outlining its main findings, and reporting how Latin America compares with the world in e-government readiness and development. It first outlines the background of the UN report, followed by the research methodology. Then it discusses the findings relevant to Latin America, with a brief conclusion on topics for future research and discussion.

Contributing to Socially Relevant Public Policies on E-Governance

This chapter aims to introduce a conceptual framework and a case study that can contribute to deepen the understanding of the relation among the information and knowledge society, democracy, and development. In this chapter, it is argued that this relation has as its core issue the reinforcement of the governability and the governance oriented to development through the use of ICTs. Special focus is made on the contribution that ICTs can make in the consolidation of a public space where multi-actor, open, well-informed, equitable and transparent participatory processes allow all social actors to deliberate on the proposal elaboration and decision-making processes related to the public policies that shape their life conditions. It is expected that the preliminary contributions presented in this chapter will contribute to enrich the proposal elaboration and the decision-making processes of the public policies on e-governance through a new approach that takes into account the complexity, multidimensionality, and qualitative aspects that characterized the social impact of ICTs in LAC societies.