Environmental state and information politics - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 143

Table 6.1. Percentage of national government Web sites offering
e-services, for different world regions, 2001-2005 (West, 2005 )

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

North America 28% 41% 45% 53% 56%

Pacific 19% 14% 37% 43% 24%

Asia 12% 26% 26% 30% 38%

Middle East 10% 15% 24% 19% 13%

Western Europe 9% 10% 17% 29% 20%

Eastern Europe - 2% 6% 8% 4%

Central America 4% 4% 95% 17% 15%

Latin America 3% 75% 14% 10% 19%

Russia/Central Asia 2% 1% 1% 2% 3%

Africa 2% 2% 5% 8% 7%

The goals of new electronic governance and rule-making technolo-
gies are generally considered to be fourfold (Coglianese, 2004 ): (i) the
increase of democratic legitimacy, (ii) the improvement of regulatory
decisions, (iii) a decrease in administrative costs and (iv) a better reg-
ulatory compliance. In its most positive assessments, e-governance
shows improved agency efficiency going together with cost effective-
ness, transparency, responsiveness and accountability. Arguing in this
positive and optimistic line some claim that Internet and new infor-
mation technologies have a potential for “distributed, reflexive, trans-
parent, information-rich, asynchronous, widespread, low cost, mean-
ingful and transformative participation in timely decision-making”
(Shulman, 2004 : 8), thus enhancing democratisation (e.g., UNESCO,
2005 ). Others, however, fear that the sheer mass of electronic infor-
mation and participation will overwhelm the decision-making pro-
cess and thus delay and even frustrate public authorities with their
limited capacities. In addition, the digital democracy can repro-
duce or even enhance inequalities through the digital divide, where
major groups and communities remain outside the informational flows
(cf. Wilhelm, 2000 ). 14 These general claims are also made with respect

14

In discussing these digital-induced inequalities in one of the most digitalised
nation of the world - the United States - Wilhelm ( 2004 : 73) notes that
112 million Americans are not online, 90 million are defined as low-literate,
53 million have some level of disability, and 25 million residents do not speak
English at home. Online government portals at twelfth-grade levels, only in
English, and without being disability-accessible marginalise millions of