The rise and descent of visions for e-government

Abstract

Most nations have defined strategies for e-government. The objectives for implementing e-government are often defined but the means for fueling the adoption and diffusion of e-government are typically less clear in policy statements. The present study assesses the impact of the Danish eDay initiative. The eDay initiative simply yet powerfully states that one governmental authority has the right to demand that its communication with another authority must be in electronic format. The eDay initiative represents a drastic change in the former policy statements concerning IT adoption and diffusion in Danish government. Policy statements had previously been based on voluntary adoption based on indirect and pedagogical intervention in governmental agencies, but eDay marked a departure and the carrot has been exchanged by the stick and the voice is imperative. © 2006 International Federation for Information Processing.