Advancing E‐Government at the Grassroots: Tortoise or Hare?

• Author: Donald F. Norris,M. Jae Moon
• Date: 01 January 2005
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00431.x
• Published date: 01 January 2005

64 Public Administration Review •January/February 2005, Vol. 65, No. 1

Donald F. Norris

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

M. Jae Moon

Texas A&M University

Advancing E-Government at the Grassroots:

Tortoise or Hare?

American grassroots governments have rushed to join the e-government revolution. Although

there is a growing body of e-government literature, little of it is empirical. Using data from two

nationwide surveys, we conduct a longitudinal examination of local government adoption of e-

government, Web site sophistication, the perceived impacts of e-government, and barriers to the

adoption and sophistication of e-government. We also discuss correlates of e-government adop-

tion and sophistication with selected institutional factors. We find that e-government adoption at

the grassroots is progressing rapidly (if measured solely by deployment of Web sites). However,

the movement toward integrated and transactional e-government is progressing much more slowly.

Continuing research, particularly longitudinal study, is needed to monitor the evolution of e-gov-

ernment among U.S. local governments, especially to keep pace with the practice and to ascertain

the actual impacts of e-government.

Over the past few years, an increasing amount of both

popular and scholarly attention has been focused on elec-

tronic government, or e-government. Defined as the elec-

tronic provision of information and services by govern-

ments 24 hours per day, seven days per week (Norris,

Fletcher, and Holden 2001), e-government is said, at the

minimum, to expand and extend the ability of government

organizations to serve their constituencies and to promote

a host of other, mainly positive, benefits to both govern-

ment and its citizens.

Surveys conducted within the past five years (ICMA/

PTI 2000, 2002) and a variety of other studies1 show that

in the United States, all federal agencies, all state govern-

ments (including most, if not all, departments within the

states), and over 80 percent of all general-purpose local

governments have Web sites. Through these sites, they of-

fer information and provide services 24/7 to citizens, other

governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations.

Evidence from these studies, however, also shows that

relatively few governments in the United States at any level

and of any size have developed truly sophisticated e-gov-

ernment offerings. Most e-government in the United States

today is principally informational—that is, it involves the

one-way transmission of information from government to

citizens, usually by way of static information pages

(“brochureware”), downloadable forms, and e-mail. Few

governments offer much in the way of two-way transac-

tional e-government (making purchases, payments, and

reservations, or recording complaints) or provide either

horizontal (within a governmental unit) or vertical (among

levels and layers of government) e-government integration.

Fewer still have established true portals through which visi-

tors can navigate to needed services and information trans-

parently regardless of source or location.

Donald F. Norris is the director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis

and Research and a professor of public policy at the University of Mary-

land, Baltimore County. He specializes in urban politics, public manage-

ment, and information technology in public organizations. He holds a doc-

torate from the University of Virginia. His publications have appeared in a

number of journals in the United States and abroad. He is also the coeditor

in chief of the

International Journal of Electronic Government Research

. E-

mail: norris@umbc.edu.

M. Jae Moon is currently teaching at the Department of Public Administra-

tion at Korea University. His teaching and research interests include e-gov-

ernment, public management, and public administration theory. His research

has appeared in various journals in public administration and policy, in-

cluding

Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Re-

search and Theory, Administration and Society, Technological Forecasting

and Social Change, Public Performance and Management Review

among

others. E-mail: jmoon@bushschool.tamu.edu.