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opportunities to give feedback to government officials and employees. E-government
enables citizens to enjoy greater participation, more ably express themselves, and
better play roles in the policy-making process, all of which improve the functions
of democracy. Several studies have noted that e-government has helped not only
in improving service delivery (Kibsi, Boer, Mourshed, & Rea, 2001; Srivastava &
Teo, 2007; Von Haldenwang, 2004; West, 2004) and increasing democratiza-
tion (Von Haldenwang, 2004; West, 2004) but also in reducing corruption and
increasing government transparency (Banerjee & Chau, 2004; Cho & Choi, 2004;
Von Haldenwang, 2004; Wong & Welch, 2004). In addition, e-government has
been proposed as a solution for increasing citizens' communication with govern-
ment agencies and, ultimately, furthering political trust (Chadwick & May, 2003;
Clift, 2000; Norris, 2001; Seifert & Peterson, 2002; Tapscott, 1997; Thomas &
Streib, 2003; Tolbert & Mossberger, 2006; West, 2004). Therefore, the benefits of
e-government can be seen as both diverse and broad, confirming the importance of
e-government to both societies in general and the government itself.
3.1.3 E-Government Gap and External
Environment at Country Level
Although the importance of e-government has been widely accepted, its adoption
among nations worldwide occurs at varying levels (see Figure 3.1). Based on the
data of the UN e-government Survey of 2010, the average score of the top 10 coun-
tries is 0.81 out of 1, whereas the lowest 10 countries scored 0.02. In addition, of
the 191 countries evaluated, only 61 received a score higher than 0.5, with 56 of
those countries scoring below 0.3. Differences also exist among various regions. For
example, the average score for countries in Europe is 0.6277, whereas the region of
40
30
20
10
0
0
.2
.4
.6
.8
1
E-government
Figure 3.1
Adoption of e-governance among nations.
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