Part I: Information Communication Technologies in the World of Politics.-
Chapter 1. Current Trends in Information Communication
Technologies.- Chapter 2. The Normative Framework: Information Communication
Technologies, Local Government, and Democratic Theory within the Context of
Public Administration.- Chapter 3. The Analytical Framework to Understand
Digital Government at the Local Level.- Part II. Comparative Analysis of
Developments in Local E-Government and E-Democracy.- Chapter 4. United States.-
Chapter 5. France.- Chapter 6. Germany.- Chapter 7. Japan.- Part III. Conclusion.-
Chapter 8. Comparative Trends and Best Practices: What is the Port of Next
Call?.
Dr. Tony E. Wohlers, Department of History and Government, Cameron University, Ph.D. Political Science, Northern Illinois University. 2004. Specialization in Public Policy, Public Administration, Comparative Politics, European Politics, Research Methods, Local Electronic Government, and Biopolitics
Dr. Lynne L. Bernier, Associate Professor Politics, Carroll University, Waukesha, Wisconsin. Recieved from Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, political science. Areas of Specialization: Comparative local/metropolitan government, intergovernmental relations, global political economy
The Internet and related technologies have
dramatically changed the way we live, work, socialize, and even topple national
governments. As the Internet becomes increasingly pervasive across societies,
we find more often that governments adopt Information Communication
Technologies (ICTs) as part of their toolbox for facilitating efficient and
citizen-oriented service delivery at all levels of government. Local governments
across the major industrialized democracies have not been an exception to this
trend and have set sail into the age of digital government. Closest to their
citizens, towns and cities have adopted ICTs to facilitate electronic
government (e-government). While research on local e-government functionality
in terms of information dissemination, service delivery, and citizen engagement
continues at an impressive empirical and methodological pace, gaps in our
knowledge remain. Cross-national comparative research on local e-government
that covers a wide range of municipalities in combination with in-depth case
study analyses is lacking. Informed by a comparative case study approach, this
book seeks to narrow that gap and offer practical policy solutions to
facilitate local e-government. We do so by pursuing both a macro and micro
perspective of e-government functionality in the federal republics of Germany
and the United States and unitary France and Japan. The macro perspective
focuses on the state and scope of e-government functionality
across a large number of randomly selected municipalities of all sizes in these
advanced industrialized countries. Based on a small sample of case studies, the
micro perspective analyzes the successful implementation of e-government in
Seattle (United States), Nuremberg (Germany), Bordeaux (France), and Shizuoka City
(Japan).