# On E-Governance

- Link: https://tacobout.online/2026/02/09/on-e-governance/
- Published: 2026-02-09T12:30:33-06:00
- Author: schwegler

_**By: Raquisha Givens, Hussain Punjani, Andrew Schwegler, Savannah Viar**
Originally
published: November 21, 2013

It has been overwhelming stated that our world is becoming smaller with the use 
of technology. With the click of a mouse we can connect to people on the other side
of the world. Technology has allowed the Earth community as a whole to become intertwined
in ways that could never have been imagined a mere twenty years ago. With these 
ever increasing connections amongst people, governments throughout the world have
taken note and have begun to use these connections in order to increase government
interactivity amongst its citizens. This process is known as e-governance.

A true scholarly definition of e-governance is “E-Governance comprises the use of
information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support public services, government
administration, democratic processes, and relationships among citizens, civil society,
the private sector and the state.” (Dawes, 2008) With that definition, it is easy
to identify what exactly e-governance is however in this paper we will discuss not
only what e-governance is, but also how e-governance is used in daily government
activities and the what the future of e-governance holds.

Before we begin to talk about e-governance and how governments use it now, let’s
talk about the differences between e-governance and e-government. The difference
is not all that complicated but it is something that must be identified for one 
to accurately understand government and its use of information and communication
technologies (ITCs). E-governance is the broader concept of the two and refers to
all government activity that takes places in a virtual landscape. E-government however
only specifically refers to the use of the Internet with government technologies.

## Communication Changes that have led to E-Governance

During the 1960s television was a new medium with great potential. Researchers believed
that television was able to “contribute to a more informed, inclusive, nonpartisan
democracy.” (Gurevitch et al. 2009). Television was able to reach a broad audience
and inform those who otherwise would have limited access to information including
political news. Studies showed that through exposure to political broadcast voters
acquired significant information about issues and proposals (Trenaman and McQuail
1961). This led to the formation of a long standing relationship between the television
and politics. In the beginning, politicians would provide the information and the
media would package and present it to the people. Over time many reporters and editors
were becoming more dubious of the information they were receiving and began to take
a more investigative approach to gathering and delivering news. Once the media became
more analytical of political news politicians began to hire professionals to help
fashion their messages and image to the public. This led to a shift in the focus
of political news from the issues and policy proposals to the personalities and 
behaviors of the politicians.

About a decade after the introduction of television a new medium emerged known as
the internet. The internet vastly captured audiences from various backgrounds and
has since caused a decrease in television viewers and newspaper readers. In 2008,
one study showed that the number of people who cited the internet as their main 
source of campaign news has increased by twenty-three percent since 2004 (Pew 2008).
Citizens were no longer a passive audience, they were given an active voice to not
only respond to the news they were given but to create mass public messages as well.
Politicians adjusted to this new form of communication by using the internet to 
their advantage in conveying their message to a larger, more active, and engaged
audience.

## E-Governance as an Instant Feedback Mechanism

Government data is more widely available now than it ever has been before. From 
initiatives within the Obama administration to the now ever more common leaks, transparency
is at an all-time high. This idea is widely referred to as “open government” and
covers the increasing availability of government data as well as government participation
and collaboration with citizens and non-profits (Chun 2010).

This two-way dialogue that has been elevated by the advent of newer, social web 
technologies engages and empowers citizens. Simply looking at an archived event 
hashtag on Twitter like #HOFDebate, which was used for the 2012 presidential debate
at Hofstra University you can see that collective engagement was incredibly high.
Anytime a candidate would make any claim, the collective user base would come right
back with a refutation and provide their own facts.

Though, the sentiments and fact-checking aren’t just being broadcast out into the
ether. The Obama administration uses a web application created by Gina Trapani to
track and create reports based on how public sentiments project themselves on to
social services like Twitter and Facebook (Wilkinson 2010) This application allows
them an “easy ways to survey constituents, analyze and share response sets as well
as track and archive conversations.” Basically, this boils down to powerful analytics
on what people think in aggregate instead of the more traditional way of handling
interactions one at a time. Governments can even use such a tool to track sentiment
geographically and see how legislation and programs are being received on a state-
by-state or district-by district level.

## E-Governance from Constituents

The growth and spread of technology has been vital for the empowerment of citizens
around the world. The advancement and widespread availability of media devices have
allowed constituents to make a difference and allowed them to voice their own opinions.
Socio-economic barriers that were previously present, such as uncertainty, lack 
of time, lack of support and fewer resources have now dissipated through the medium
of technology and its widespread use. (Butler, 2002)

Furthermore, this reformation has allowed citizens to come together and build influential
networks as seen with Anonymous. Anonymous is known to be a group of hackers and
social activists that have made major change through releasing sensitive information
and hacking into systems. This legal form of protesting without a true identity 
has also made it hard for the government to suppress it because of the anonymous
nature of the protest. Anonymous was the catalyst in the reopening of a Maryville
rape case, where anonymous was able to initiate large scale attention which led 
an independent investigation (Carroll, 2013). This example reveals that these activists
were acting as governance in their own ways to bring about reform and change. Additionally,
Anonymous also aided the in the Egyptian revolution, as they were able to help dissidents
access government blocked websites. Through the medium of cell phones and social
media, the protestors were able to increase support of the uprising and make it 
public protest for the world to see. (Brisson, 2011) This technology helped fragmented
citizens come together and create a strong activist political union that was influential
and was able to overthrow their oppressive ruler. These examples reveal how technology
served as an aid to help bring reform and justice to individuals who were previously
suppressed by the government.

Unlike what the government was able to do in the past, currently, the government
is not able to suppress information due to even single individuals who can make 
a major impression and difference through their acts. This ideology that a single
individual has the power to make an impact is seen with Julian Assange and his organization
called WikiLeaks. Assange released confidential information about the US government
and the Pentagon papers. Another key player was a part time contractor for the NSA,
Edward Snowden. Snowden was able to release controversial information about the 
NSA, the Prism Program, the British GCHQ and Israel’s ISNU Organizations. The release
of this information enraged the public and led to revolts and protest from the citizens.
However, these examples were strong displays of how single individuals can leak 
information through the use of technology and media regardless of government information
suppression.

## E-Governance from Governments

Technology has broken the barrier between constituent and representative, as this
profound technology has empowered citizens in the political process. This has allowed
constituents to engage in direct communications, altering from recipients of the
system to participants in the governance process. Communication and political dialect
are transforming to become two way conversations, as more citizens are able to have
access to their representatives. This new technology has allowed the representatives
to become more available and accountable to their constituents. This has been seen
with the Democracy Project in Denmark, which created an online portal where citizens
could learn about their government, engage in open debate and directly ask questions
to their representatives. This program served as a catalyst and engaged the public
as there were record amounts of voting for that period. (Unesco, 2005)

Furthermore, as overall education levels have risen and citizens have become more
educated, this has led to more criticism about the Government. The increase in the
citizen’s education levels has led to calls for better transparency and increased
accountability. E-governance tries to accomplish these goals by increasing information
through various technology sectors. By increasing the diffusion of information through
many mediums, allows for increased transparency and accountability. Mexico has taken
an active role in fighting against corruption by implementing Compranet. This program
is an electronic system that keeps account of all federal government procurement
services, such as hiring contractors, purchasing units and supplies (Estrada, 2002).
This allows the Mexican citizens to check on their government’s purchase’s effectively
cutting down corruption while instilling government trust in the Mexican Public.

With an exponentially increasing population, the demand on government services has
greatly risen. E governance tries to address this demand this by cutting down excess
programs, which fundamentally sends the citizen to the direct service. This improvement
of government services allows for better choices, faster delivery of services and
an efficient and effective system. This is seen as select markets are adopting for
citizens to text emergency services, this allows for ease of access, which is good
for the consumer. (FCC, 2013) Furthermore, this increases efficiency and performance,
which in turn can be beneficial for the government.

As governments grow and adapt to changes, they must change with the current time.
These governments are transforming for a technological driven future of governance
and must change accordingly. However, the implementation of this process must be
taken in short term and long term objectives. Forcing the direct conversion would
be a hassle and difficult for the citizen and the government, but by taking short
term objectives, the government is able to test certain variable and factors, while
the citizen can ease into the transformation. This example can be seen the Affordable
care Act and its country wide implementation. Because the transition was not well
planned, the long term goal failed to be accomplished because the implementation
process was not done in small increments, allowing for citizens to adjust and for
the process to be implemented.

## Problems with E-Governance

While e-governance might be widely embraced as a great way go about increasing “
cost efficiencies and improving service delivery” (Dadashzadeh 2010), there are 
serious issues with both the delivery methods for e-governance and its implementation.
Additionally, how such a large government develops such large online programs is
in direct opposition to the standard approach to development taken in most industries.

Broadband internet is currently in approximately 70% of American households. Furthermore,
reliable broadband isn’t even available in much of the country. This leaves much
of the country out in the cold as government services are moving in droves to the
lower-margin venues found on the internet.

Even if broadband was everywhere, implementing functional web applications on a 
universal level is difficult. Private industry leaders like Apple have enough problems
with keeping their relatively simple sites and services online when they release
a highly sought after product (Zibreg 2013). It is no wonder that an application
which a majority of Americans are required to visit would go down.

These issues, highlighted by the rollout of healthcare.gov, have to do with implementation
at such a large scale. Governments have a built-in user base of all their citizens
who need to enroll in new online social programs such as the Affordable Care Act(
ACA) or the UK’s Universal Credit program. As such, the programs deal with much 
wider rollouts than private web applications.

The Affordable Care Act relies heavily on web services in its implementation. The
cornerstone of this can bee seen at the program’s national online healthcare exchange.
This exchange, found at Healthcare.gov, was launched on 1 October 2013. From the
outset, it was maligned by technology issues and attacked viciously by its opponents.
The problems with the exchange, however, are very real and very commonplace in the
realm of e-governance. Healthcare.gov was not afforded the luxury of being able 
to go through phased development. Instead, the online exchange was engineered to
be able to handle an immense load in theory—something that was impossible to sufficiently
test in the closed-off world of government development.

The flipside of this can be seen when the Obama administration took over whitehouse.
gov, they added many new features and replaced the old content management system
with the open-source Drupal project (Scola 2009) While the website was much simpler
than healthcare.gov, it was also designed in a much different way. They took proven
technology and design techniques which they modified to make more interactive. Then,
in a bold move, they released the new code back to the community to critique and
examine (Jredding 2012).

The revamped Whitehouse.gov was also handled by an industry leader in web development
on the Drupal platform who produced thes site without much interference. Similar
things can’t be said about Healthcare.gov design because it was handled by the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS was not required to solicit bids from
industry leaders like the Whitehouse.gov project was. Instead, they brought on a
chosen collection of sub-contractors (Auerbach 2013). This is often referred to 
as “designing by committee” as the various contractors are all developing their 
pieces of the application separately and relying on multiple rounds of bureaucratic
feedback in order to get it working properly. In total, there were 47 different 
companies working on the project (Sullivan 2013).

## Conclusion

Because of its short lifetime, e-governance has only begun to scratch the surface
on what the government is capable of using information and communication technologies.
However, the future is bright for this new and upcoming form of government. For 
example, in Pakistan it is custom that once a voter casts their ballot for them 
to receive a text message confirming their vote. This is a new form of technology
to assure voters that their vote has been counted and is the stepping-stone to the
idea of texting in your vote, which saves time and other valuable resources. Other
forms of e-governance that are e-taxes which takes the process of doing taxes to
a completely online or computer driven service and e-procurement which cuts out 
of the middle man on large government purchases because it allows them to communicate
directly with the businesses that they are working with. Perhaps the most important
thing to take away from this new form of government is its use as a fact checker
and how it allows for a more transparent government system that is there to serve
its citizens.

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