Technological Adoption of a Privatised E-government: Implications for Democracy and Socially Marginalised Communities in Brazil

Abstract

In most parts of the world e-government can be characterised as a privatised initiative in the sense that its infrastructure is built through contracts with the private sector. While in Brazil, as in many other countries, e-government initiatives have been successful in rapidly implementing the electronic provision of a large variety and number of public services to the population-"services improvement agenda", the democratic aspects of e-government and the transparency in the decision-making process in public institutions-"relationships improvement agenda", are underdeveloped in practice. Due to the privatisation of the telecommunications sector that accompanied the neo-liberal discourse, high investment made by the government in information and communication technologies (ICTs) projects have benefited more the corporate actors than the economically impoverished communities, now that access to electronic services is no longer considered as a social right for all, but a privilege for some. The discourse of e-government is to require that access to new technology is a fundamental right for everyone. Unfortunately, in most countries the predominant e-government model is designed with a view of citizens as service recipients, rather than active participants. Furthermore, the dialogue between providers and citizens is not completed during the process of development of the technology but at the periphery of its implementation. The purpose of this study is to discuss the challenges of e-government in Brazil that, despite the high promotional cost of the "services improvement agenda", it is commercialised as a business orientation that ignores citizen participation and the democratic deficit or the "relationships improvement agenda".