Dr. Joan-Josep Vallbé and Dr. Núria Casellas, both of The Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School, presented a paper entitled Raising Voice or Effectiveness? The Role of e-Government on the Quality of Political Institutions, at ECEG 2012: The 12th European Conference on e-Government, held 14-15 June 2012 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Here is the abstract:
It is commonly accepted that transparency can make political institutions more effective, improve economic development, enforce accountability, and increase the quality of democracy. The recent expansion of the Internet around the world has lead governments and organizations to emphasize the role of online access to public information and data in fostering accountability of public processes, and public participation. The empirical assessment of the benefits of e-government on governance has been limited by the lack of systematic data, but the recent publication of the UN e-Government Survey offers the possibility to use cross-sectional data to assess the role of e-government. This paper combines cross-sectional data from the UN e-Government Survey and the World Bank Governance Indicators to explore the impact of governmental online initiatives on different aspects of governance. Our research shows that although some of the optimistic views regarding the potential benefits of e-government policies are well grounded, the nature of a political regime is a key factor to qualify the effects of e-government.
The UN e-Government Survey index includes provision of online access to legal information as a factor.
For the full text of the paper, please contact the authors.
Thanks to Dr. Vallbé for allowing me to post the abstract.
Tags: ECEG, ECEG 2012, Effect of egovernment on political institutions, Effect of egovernment on quality of governance, Effects of egovernment, egovernment, European Conference on e-Government, Influence of egovernment on governance, Influence of egovernment on political institutions, Joan-Josep Vallbé, Nuria Casellas
