Chapter 6: Electronic Government in Relation to its Context

The development of Electronic Government does not take place within a vacuum. Students of E-Government as well as practitioners responsible for such projects, have to be aware that there is always a relevant specific context in time, space, and organizational peculiarities to consider. In this chapter, we are discussing some of the most important contextual factors, including other administrative reforms, anti-corruption strategies, and politico-administrative structural variables, among others.

As a basic assumption strengthened by our own practical experience, we are convinced that the implementation of Electronic Government does have an impact on its context (and vice versa). Some would argue, as Agre (2002, p. 317 ff), points out that the introduction of new ICTs (more specifically: internet technology) does not lead to real qualitative changes. They would expect computers to be a conservative technology which is shaped by local politics in a way that leaves the existing distribution of power in place. Agre calls this school of argumentation the reinforcement model. In contrast Agre himself proposes that computer technology is an amplifying technology in that it can and will lead to qualitative changes, but only if already existing forces are strong enough to lead through this change process. In practice, however, this is seldom the case: