Assessing the role of GIS in e-Government: A tale of e-Participation in two cities

Abstract

This paper will deal with the question of what the influence is that Geographical Information Systems have on policy design in, e-government and e-democracy. A conceptual model of policy design is used with which two case studies will be analyzed in which GIS was used to encourage participation of citizens in urban planning and redevelopment. It will become clear that the potential of e-government cannot be reached while governments, citizens and the institutional setting have not adapted to the reality of e-government as of yet. Demonstrated will be that certain groups stay excluded in the policy process and that e-government is limited by the risk averting behavior of governments. However it will also be shown that e-government can help bridge the gap between government and citizen and can lower the scope of conflict between the two. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.