Ambiguous Confusions and

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Ambiguous Confusions and New Directions in
Electronic Government   JA Taylor, Caledonian
Business School and Oxford Internet Institute
19th July, 2004.  
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The E-Government Paradigm Policy Orthodoxy

• the use of technology to enhance access to and
  delivery of government services to benefit
  citizens, business partners and employees. It has
  the power to create a new mode of public services
  where all organisations deliver a modernised,
  integrated and seamless service for their
  citizens
•  
• From provider-led to citizen-centric services
• From universalism to CRM and personalised
  services
• From information provision to integrated on-line
  transactions
• From fat to lean cost/performance ratios.

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The E-Government Paradigm An Uncritical Research
Orthodoxy

• The first step is to measure what can easily be
  measuredThe second step is to disregard that
  which cannot be measured or give it an arbitrary
  quantitative value.The third step is to presume
  that which cannot be measured easily is not
  really very importantThe fourth step is to say
  that what cannot be easily measured really does
  not exist.
• Positivist
• Measurement oriented
• Comparative/benchmarking focus
• Atheoretical
• De-contextualised

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• Dominant Perspectives on Governance Networks
  Markets or Hierarchies Markets
• Governing without government
• Multi-level and horizontal governance
• The prospect is that hierarchical control will
  be replaced by continuing processes of bargaining
  among interested parties within most fields of
  Public Admin Bogason et al, 1998

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• Dominant Perspectives on Governance An emergent
  revision?
• Governance takes place in the shadow of
  hierarchy Jessop, 2004
• The erosion of central power should not be
  assumed Bache Flinders, 2004
• British society is marked by continuing patterns
  of structured inequality
• Marsh et al, 2003
• Camouflaged centralism and The Decline of the
  Public
• Marquand, 2004

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New Directions in e-Government The Policy
Backdrop

• Perceived failure of e-government
• Continuing critique of management and
  organisational failures in the public services
• Low trust government, high trust alternatives
• Communitarianist thinking in HMG
• The democratic deficit v alternative political
  engagement
• CRM, personalisation and public service
  improvement

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New Directions in e-Government Getting closer to
the Third Sector

• Compacts between government and the Voluntary
  Sector
• Legal promise for the Voluntary Sector
  Campaigning Charitable Status
• Enhanced financial independence for the Voluntary
  Sector Securing longer term funding Charity
  Banks and Venture Philanthropy
• Developing the ICT infrastructure of the
  Voluntary Sector
• Implementing the Electronic Mixed Economy
• CRM and Identity Management.

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New Direction 1 The Electronic Mixed Economy

• Delivering e-government through voluntary and
  private sector intermediaries
• Exploiting information and knowledge joining up
  services to the citizen customising/personalising
  services for the citizen enhancing uptake
• Data sharing for planning and implementing
  e-services
• Identity Management
• Intermediaries in a virtual policy environment
• partners of government?
• agents of the citizen?
• agents of the government?

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New Direction 2 Customer Relations Management,
Personalisation and Identity Management

• CRM the idealised consumer/government
  relationship in a low trust environment
• Personalisation Orwell or Amazon?
• Identity Management affording ease of access
  delivering differentiated services social
  categorization, subjugation or citizenship?

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New Direction 2 Customer Relations Management,
Personalisation and Identity Management

• Identification and third party authentication
• Layered citizenship
• Personalising the web MyVirginia
• Covert collection of personal data
• RFID
• Location based services
• Biometrics the Privium Smartcard

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Critical e-Government in the Information Polity

• Informatisation as x-ray
• Information flows, resource dependencies and
  power relationships
• Information capabilities standardisation,
  fitness for purpose controls
• Information matching and sharing
• Informating the citizen
• Information domains and institutional life
• Information, accountability and legitimacy.