Red Tape and Reforms: Trajectories of Technological and Managerial Reforms in Public Administration

It may be tempting to assume that e-government initiatives mark a single trajectory away from the classical bureaucracy, into a modernised administrative sublime. A critical investigation of the e-government phenomenon, however, reveals that there are many trajectories of e-government reform, and th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of public administration 2008-06, Vol.31 (7), p.749-770
Main Author: Homburg, Vincent M. F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
administrative reform
Bureaucracy
comparative study
Democracy
Denmark
e-government
Electronic government
Governmental reform
Netherlands
Public Administration
Reform
Reforms
Studies
Technology
trajectories of reform
United Kingdom
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Summary:It may be tempting to assume that e-government initiatives mark a single trajectory away from the classical bureaucracy, into a modernised administrative sublime. A critical investigation of the e-government phenomenon, however, reveals that there are many trajectories of e-government reform, and that understanding the e-government phenomenon is not a question of understanding technology, but rather a question of how to grasp the concepts of democracy and institutions. In this article, various trajectories of reform are identified and national policies of the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands are analysed. It is concluded that trajectories of e-government reform are quite different in various national contexts, and that prevailing views of reforms are enshrined in envisaged uses of technology.
ISSN:0190-0692
1532-4265
DOI:10.1080/01900690701690817