TY - JOUR
T1 - E-government and citizen's engagement with local affairs through e- websites: The case of Spanish municipalities
AU - Cegarra-Navarro, Juan-Gabriel
AU - Córdoba-Pachón, José-Rodrigo
AU - Moreno, José-Luis
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - As a mixture of new technologies, processes and services oriented to the citizen, e-government has become one of the most important keywords for the public sector reform with proponents claiming that it guarantees transparency, accountability and better communication between local and national administrations and their public. Few if any studies have investigated the factors that might contribute to the establishment of trusting relationship between city councils and citizens. This paper examines the relative importance and significance of three types of information communication technologies (ICTs) towards the use of e-government and the development of civic engagement. We conduct an empirical investigation of 179 Spanish official town websites (web sites in the municipalities). The research findings suggest that implementing ICT not only involves a step towards an increase in the use of e-government services by people, but also provides numerous opportunities for their civic engagement. The main conclusion of this study is that although ICT can leverage the adoption of e-government, it cannot create alone engagement with traditional activities of the local government. What is missing from this relationship is a mediating variable (adoption of e-government by government officers), which in turn can greatly help to better understand how ICT impacts relationships between governments and their citizens
AB - As a mixture of new technologies, processes and services oriented to the citizen, e-government has become one of the most important keywords for the public sector reform with proponents claiming that it guarantees transparency, accountability and better communication between local and national administrations and their public. Few if any studies have investigated the factors that might contribute to the establishment of trusting relationship between city councils and citizens. This paper examines the relative importance and significance of three types of information communication technologies (ICTs) towards the use of e-government and the development of civic engagement. We conduct an empirical investigation of 179 Spanish official town websites (web sites in the municipalities). The research findings suggest that implementing ICT not only involves a step towards an increase in the use of e-government services by people, but also provides numerous opportunities for their civic engagement. The main conclusion of this study is that although ICT can leverage the adoption of e-government, it cannot create alone engagement with traditional activities of the local government. What is missing from this relationship is a mediating variable (adoption of e-government by government officers), which in turn can greatly help to better understand how ICT impacts relationships between governments and their citizens
KW - E-government
KW - ICT
KW - Websites
KW - Spain
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.02.008
DO - 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.02.008
M3 - Article
SN - 1873-4707
VL - 32
SP - 469
EP - 478
JO - International Journal of Information Management
JF - International Journal of Information Management
IS - 5
ER -