Digital Government and Digital Governance: Grand Concept

Abstract

Development of digital democracy domain substantially depends on how correctly are understood conceptual dimensions and how clearly are determined functions of digital government and digital governance, as digital government represents a fundamental shift in the way governments around the world are embracing their mission and digital governance is no longer just a technological enabler. Digital government and digital governance (as terms and concepts), known as multidimensional, multifaceted and multidisciplinary phenomenon, are often treated as synonymous and used interchangeably in the academic literature or formal documents. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to clear existing conceptual ambiguity between them. There are no universally accepted definitions of both abstractions. Such conceptual uncertainty has a negative impact on the development of digital democracy. The research objective of this article is to provide a deeper understanding of digital government and digital governance concepts through empirical studies and scatter the existing ambiguity in differences between these two concepts as this variety is not just questions of academic nuance. Based on a comparative analysis of digital government and digital governance conceptual meanings, this article offers an approach according to which digital government and digital governance represents two various but closely related and co-existing concepts. Furthermore, in the concluding section of the article, there is suggested recommendation regarding development a new grand concept in which both multidimensional conceptual visions will be combined.