Realigning Governance

This chapter posits that Governance realignment from e-Government to e-Democracy constitutes a critical context for social and economic development in both developed and developing countries. E-Government and e-Democracy are not new phenomena in most developed countries and some developing countries in Asia and Africa. However, the degrees of political and economic variations between developed and developing countries poses a serious challenge to the efforts towards realignment of governance for social and economic development attainment. The findings in this chapter are that social and economic development lie at the intersection of e-Government and e-Democracy processes of governance realignment. Asymmetry in institutionalisation, and diffusion of e-Democracy amongst countries is widely attributed to economic and political variations in these countries. Unless these differences are skillfully identified and accommodated as such into the development and use models, e-Democracy efforts will not help achieve social and economic development goals, particularly those of developing countries.

Government 2.0

E-Government and e-Democracy system development is enabled by Internet technology. The implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) accelerates the transformation of government institutions and their methods of operations. The use of ICTs at municipality institutions not only opens up possibilities for improving services to citizens and businesses, but also increases their involvement in local community governance. The general objective of this chapter is to reveal, at the municipality level, the opportunity for local community development and stronger citizen involvement in governing processes (e-Democracy). The chapter aims to present the new sources of knowledge, particularly through the involvement of individuals in local government development. The chapter aims to understand challenges in developing open information infrastructures that support municipality innovation and development. The chapter utilizes extensive literature reviews and the analysis of the content of selected e-Government portals to inform its positions.

The Opportunities and Challenges of using Email for Political Communication in Authoritarian States

This chapter uses Illich's (1973) concept of conviviality for analysing the challenges and opportunities of using email for political communication in authoritarian states. Based on evidence from a case study of Zimbabwe's Media Monitoring Project (MMPZ), it contends that while conviviality allows the use of ICTs for political mobilisation, it also enables a counterproductive “big brother” effect. In addition to constant censorship and overt operations, covert strategies are often used for disrupting communication platforms. This calls for a framework for harnessing ICTs for political mobilisation. This chapter is a case study on how perceived state surveillance disrupted a vibrant communicative space in Zimbabwe. Based on evidence from the volumes of email traffic transacted over two weeks of panic, anger, and heroism, the chapter discusses the challenges and opportunities of using email for political mobilisation and warns against uncritical celebration of the role of ICTs in political mobilisation. It concludes by suggesting how the adaption of e-strategies from email marketing to political communication is among the skills that could break the tie between political opponents armed with the same convivial tools for political communication in the information age.

Quality Approaches for Performance Measurement in Jordanian E-Government Services

Improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of public services has become a growing concern for many governments across the world, and more so with recent popularity of online services, widely referred as e-government services. The application of quality approaches for measuring and improving e-government services has been the subject of much research within the academic world over the last two decades. This chapter discusses the use of key quality approaches to improve services in Jordan's e-government initiatives. As more and more developing countries are adopting e-services as a means of providing quality services to their community and people through the Web, the necessary benchmarking plays an important role. Many traditional quality benchmarking performance measurements have proved futile in improving e-government services due to their quantitative focus. Though qualitative frameworks and measurement approaches such as Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard have found their success in certain industry sectors, their relevance in the service sector has drawn attention only recently. While some studies have employed such approaches for evaluating projects in information and communication technologies, literature lacks investigations in the e-government sector. To fill this gap, this chapter investigates the application of Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard approaches to improve quality in Jordanian e-government services.

Citizens' Voice and Adoption of Pakistani E-Government Services

Even though there is emerging literature on e-government, research focused on potential problems related to citizens' adoption of e-government services in developing countries is still limited. As a developing country, e-government services in Pakistan have witnessed prolific advancements over the years. Since 2002, Pakistan has strategically adopted e-government as a part of its policy. In this chapter, the factors influencing citizens' e-government service adoption in Pakistan are examined using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model. The findings indicate that, in addition to the lack of awareness and data privacy, all of the factors specified by the model have an effect on the adoption of these services in Pakistan. The empirical results highlight the voice of citizens concerning the usage of the services. This information can be used by the policy and decision makers to promote services that correspond better to the needs of the citizens.

Legal Empowerment as Social Entrepreneurship

In this chapter, theoretical foundations of social entrepreneurship and legal empowerment are explored and intersection of these social actions by community based-paralegal practice in rural KwaZulu-Natal examined. Conceptually, integration of social entrepreneurship and legal empowerment innovatively contributes to the broader discourse on self-determined community development and democratic governance. Empirical evidence shows that community-based paralegals generate legal empowerment as social entrepreneurship and such service delivery advances rural women empowerment. Arguably there is a global/local nexus of each social action; a positive theory of social entrepreneurship is more useful than normative theories; rule of law orthodoxy is less meaningful for and somewhat contradictory to self-empowerment of indigenous populations that experience plural legal systems. This qualitative study found that while contemporary business models are incorporated in the intersection of social entrepreneurship and legal empowerment, so are African indigenous justice principles and remedies.

Towards a Citizen-Centric E-Government Service Index Model

The purpose of this chapter is three-fold. First, it proposes a novel E-Government Service Index (ESI) that is a citizen-centric maturity model. Second, the model uses Egypt's E-Government services as an experimental arena to spot the maturity of the provided services and highlights e-government development in Egypt. Finally, the chapter explores the impediments of citizen-centric e-government implementation within the Egyptian context and recommends specific interventions within the frame of the proposed model.

An Overview of E-Government Technological Divide in Developing Countries

This chapter presents an overview of e-Government technological divide in developing countries. Technological divide here does not consist simply of telecommunications and computer equipment (i.e. ICTs), but it is also e-Readiness (i.e. the available capacity as indicated by workforce capacity to build, deploy, and maintain ICT infrastructure), ICT literacy (using digital technology, communication tools, and/or networks appropriately to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information), e-Inclusion and/or e-Exclusion (i.e. no one is left behind in enjoying the benefits of ICT), etc., which are factors also necessary in order for people to be able to use and benefit from e-Government applications. Most of the currently published works on e-Government strategies are based on successful experiences from developed countries, which may not be directly applicable to developing countries. Based on a literature review, this chapter reveals the status of e-Government technological divide in developing countries and also underscores the challenges associated with e-Government in developing countries, thus bringing to the limelight the factors that influence the growth of the technological divide and different approaches that have been put in place to overcome the divide. In conclusion, this chapter advocates education and training, local content development, enhancing network infrastructure, and capacity building, among others, as ways of bridging the divide.

A Semantic-Enabled Framework for E-Government Systems Development

The ultimate goal of e-Governance is to reach the stage of seamless service delivery in one-stop e-Government. This raises the engineering issues of integration, reusability, maintenance, and interoperability of autonomous e-Government systems of government departments and agencies. Therefore, appropriate methodologies that consistently address the aforementioned engineering issues throughout clearly defined e-Government development phases are needed. This chapter provides the design and specification, of a framework that amalgamates features from maturity models, software engineering and Semantic Web domains for semantic-enabled development of e-Government systems. Firstly, the methods and techniques used for the planning, design, and implementation of e-Government systems worldwide are investigated; a critical analysis is carried out to identify their advantages and disadvantages, as well as their contribution towards addressing the aforementioned engineering issues. Secondly, the proposed framework is drawn and specified. Finally, support tools including a business process model, an alignment matrix of stages and phases of development, and a weighting matrix of the intensity of semantic activities at various phases of development is drawn and described.

ICT in Direct Democracy

This chapter presents and analyzes the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in public participation and more specificly in e-referenda as an aspect of direct democratic participation. It aims to explain the correlation between ICT and e-referenda. Referendum, used as an instrument to accept or deny a proposed political decision, has a strong function of controlling political power and securing the openness of political power structures. It serves as an instrument of division of powers and opens roads to opposition outside parliament. In general, it provides the people with veto positions (Schiller, 2003, p. 12). By presenting the evolvement of the ICT and the technological developments that resulted an impact on the way democracy is being exercised in the modern societies, there is an attempt to provide ideas and solutions on the use of e-referenda in modern democracies. The dangers, the advantages, and the disadvantages of the use of ICT in democracy are presented and analysed as well. All these issues are being discussed, as this chapter tries to give a clear and objective perspective regarding the role of e-democracy and the problems that come along with its implementation.