Why is true eGovernment still difficult to be achieved?

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a framework to understand the complex and ambiguous phenomenon of Electronic Government (eGovernment) and the several existing models that allow to understand it. Then, the paper discusses the main difficulties in achieving true eGovernment and a way to overcome them. In fact, the eGovernment label has been often given for granted by simply using ICT, e.g. exploiting interoperability frameworks or automatizing services in the Public Administrations. This gave the impression, or even the illusion, of an authentic quality improvement (in efficiency and effectiveness) in the exercise of government functions by different public entities. Actually, in most cases, what happened was only an enhancement in the provisioning of public services, rather than a true improvement of government activities. The paper discusses this misunderstanding and gives hints to achieve true eGovernment functions. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.