AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

The great potential in e-government - the provision of public services to citizens through the internet - is widely recognized by governments and expectations of the benefits are high. E-government research has been preoccupied with its evolution, public websites and citizen adoption, from a ‘natural growth and voluntary use’ perspective. Little attention has been drawn to mandatory e-government. This paper reports from an exploratory study on a Danish mandatory e-government initiative – enforced e-communication between local government and citizens. Civil servants’ perception was investigated through two Focus groups. Civil servants reported that some citizens find it really hard to manage computer and e-communication. Moreover, the civil servants feel that they are not allowed to offer the necessary assistance, which makes them frustrated. They find that especially weak citizens may lose welfare benefits due to e-communication. This has a negative effect on motivation and work life quality and may affect the public sector ethos. Increased efficiency by mandatory e-government may be the next hype. How will it affect citizens, civil servants and the ‘public good’? How can it ensure that citizens’ rights are not violated? This paper calls for critical research on e-government impact and for e-government scholars to play an active part ensuring ethical e-government.; The value of e-government, services to citizens by public institutions through the internet, is dependent on the mutual adoption of e-government by both the public institution and the citizens. This paper describes a longitudinal study of e-government adoption by municipalities and citizens in Denmark. We studied the e-government initiative Digital Post encrypted digital communication between municipalities and citizens. Over the three-year adoption period, we found four adoption patterns among municipalities, characterized by a slow, late, gradual or early increase in the use of Digital Post. The adoption patterns among citizens were less distinct. We calculated the realized savings to only 20% of the anticipated savings, leading to a deficit of nearly €5 million in 2013. Municipal funding was reduced according to the anticipated savings. In addition, the variation in adoption by municipal staff explained much more of the variation in the deficit than the variation in adoption by citizens did. We wish to draw attention to the overly optimistic expectations of savings from e-government and to a need for further research into the governmental processes of e-government.