Trust in public administration e-transactions: E-Voting in the UK

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of trust in information and communication technologies (ICT) mediated public administration transactional environments. This is particularly important in the case of the e-electoral process since it is necessary to maintain the existing level of citizen trust for current electoral arrangements, in the newly introduced e-voting processes. In our analysis we adopt a process stage approach of e-elections. We identify the different agents involved in the e-electoral process so as to indicate who generate trust and to whom they convey their trust during the evolution of the process. We then describe agent responsibilities for each of the process stages in order to indicate the issues on which some agents trust others. Thus we indicate why trust was needed to support the deployment of electronic voting. Finally, based on our analysis we describe cases where "inherited trust" was indirectly conveyed between agents. © Springer-Verlag 2004.