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Electronic Governance, Premise for Implementation of Electronic Democracy

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Electronic governance, premise for implementation of electronic democracy

Matei Ani 1
2
Grigorovici Iulia

Abstract

Living in a rapidly changing society, where information travels with great speed and
its upgrade is essential, we decided to approach certain aspects of e-democracy, as a dynamic
way of citizen participation, using new Information and Communications Technologies.
The theme chosen for this research, Electronic governance, premise for
implementation of electronic democracy, is a part of Electronic Administration field and
identifies the meanings of implementing e-government and e-democracy, the necessity and
effects of putting them into practice and the conditions to be fulfilled for the development of
electronic services and fostering citizen participation in their use. E-governance as well as e-
democracy have a clear contribution in making social progress, thanks to capitalize the most
important irreversible resource, the time for achievement of the main administrative
operations.
The overall objective of the research aims to establish the relationship between
governance and electronic democracy. From this perspective, this paper will contain:
analyzing the importance of both e-governance and e-democracy, risks and benefits for each
one, clarifying the need and implications underlying the implementation of electronic systems
and explain the conditions to be met by citizens in order to benefit from these services.
To achieve the objectives set, will be dominant the analyzing method of the social
phenomena in their evolution. They will also combine harmoniously with practical examples
in various member states of the European Union.

1. The conceptual framework on e-government and e-democracy

Once with the expanding use of computers and the Internet, citizens can benefit from
public services easier. Information Society broke decisively in the public sector activities
through e-government and e-democracy applications.
European Union published in 1998 the document Public sector information: a key
resource for Europe (Green Paper on public sector information in the Information Society), in
which data are available on the Information Society Conference on near of the administration
with citizens (November 1998) with 3 levels structure in services development 3:
a) Information services to collect classified information and requesting ordered (websites)
b) Communications services for interaction between individuals or groups of people (e-mail,
discussion forums)
c) Services transactions to acquire goods or services online or for presentation of data
(government forms).
The European Union has expressed its views on electronic administration, in
documents such as 4 : Rationalization of electronic administration policies in the European
Union (2001) and Report on the evolution of electronic public services in the European Union
(2002). The first of the two reports describes the stages set in the previous report in 1998.
Thus, it distinguishes between information, unilateral interaction (in one sense), bilateral
interaction (two-way) and transactions. In the Second Report there are 4 different stages: web
site, portal, e-stop shop and administration.

1
Doctor Professor at the School of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest, Romania
2
Beneficiary of the project “Doctoral scholarships for the development of the knowledge-
based society”, co-funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund,
Sectorial Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013.
3
Jose Miguel Fernandez, Maria Belen Morala Gomez, Alicia Rodriguez Perez, Raquel Flores
Lopez, Yolanda Fernandez Santos, Cristina Gutierez Lopez, Implementacion de la
information y gestion digital en los ayuntamientos leoneses: Analisis empirico de su utilidad y
nivel de divulgacion, Departamento de Direccion y Economia de la Empresa, Universidad de
Leon, 2010, P. 191.
4
Idem, P. 192.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1842123

 Over time have been written many projects focused on electronic services, they are a
genuine instrument of public administration reform, promoted by the Romanian Government.
The approach is still in its beginning and needs to reach every public officer to be effective.
OECD defines e-government 5 as "using of information and communication
technologies, especially Internet, as tools for better governance." EGovernment is an
important part of the new information society. Evidence shows that both the electronic
government and electronic democracy have developed quite global. In Europe more and more
citizens participate in online discussions, the Internet is the main source of public information,
there is a growing number of government services offered online and development plans in
area, such as the e-Europe initiative of the European Union 6.
In the literature 7 we find the concept of e-government, understood as information
and communication technologies (ICT s) to improve and optimize delivery of public services
and consultation and public participation in policy-making process, hence the 3 important
dimensions: 8
a) E-administration, local governments as service providers;
b) E-democracy, local governments activate in promoting local democracy;
c) E-government, locally policy makers.
The study of the authors Claver, Juana and Tari in 2008 attributed the inequality in
political and organizational aspects of implementation and development of electronic
administration at the local level in Spain. From the achieved analysis 9 of the contents of web
pages halls with more than 5,000 inhabitants and a questionnaire conducted among officials
responsible for technology, these authors have established a clear typology of electronic
government strategies, as described in the table below:

Table 1 - e-government strategies:

e-government strategies Procent de aplicare

1. informative 66,6% of the cases studied
2. non-availability transaction services 17% of the cases studied
3. availability of transactional services 16.4% of the cases studied

Source: Made by authors according to survey information

In another vision, "electronic governance is the process of reinventing of the public

sector through digitization and new information management techniques, a process whose
ultimate goal is to increase the political participation of citizens and the efficiency of
administrative system." 10 Electronic government 11 liasing public institutions citizens through
electronic means to exercise the fundamental rights of citizens, such as: information about
laws 12 and opinions by citizens, pay taxes by the taxpayers, filing online complaints and

5
http://www.nispa.sk/_portal/conf_papers14_list.php?cid=14&fs_papersPage=6
6
http://europa.eu.int/information_society/eeurope/2005/index_en.htm
7
Gartner, 2000.
8
Jose Miguel Fernandez, Maria Belen Morala Gomez, Alicia Rodriguez Perez, Raquel Flores
Lopez, Yolanda Fernandez Santos, Cristina Gutierez Lopez, Implementacion de la
information y gestion digital en los ayuntamientos leoneses: Analisis empirico de su utilidad y
nivel de divulgacion, Departamento de Direccion y Economia de la Empresa, Universidad de
Leon, 2010, P. 121.
9
Cerrillo i Martinez Agusti, Galan Galan Alfredo, Informe sobre la administracion
electronica local, Informe /Fundacio Pi i Sunyer, d;estudis autonomics i locals, Barcelona,
2009, P. 351.
10
Herban Dorin-Adrian, E-democratia: instrument al libertatii sau dependenta tehnologica si
informationala? Revista Informatica Economica, nr. 1(25)/2003,
www.revistaie.ase.ro/content/25/Herban.pdf
11
*** Utilizarea calculatorului si a serviciilor electronice, ghid pentru functionarii publici,
2004, http://www.riti-internews.ro/ro/Capitolul%204.pdf
12
http://www.cdep.ro/pls/proiecte/upl_pck.home

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1842123

 petitions. Implementation of e-government comes from the state to the citizen, from top to
bottom. The main components of e-governance are 13:
1) G2G (Government to Government) with G2E (Government to Employee)
2) G2C (Government to Citizens)
3) G2B (Government to Business). There are two main types of G2B applications:
public procurement systems and private sector services, both offered by the
state through the Internet.
The major e-government services 14 are divided into 3 categories:
I. Information services - allow retrieval of information sorted and classified to request on the
website or electronic info- kiosks;
II. interactive communication services - enabling interaction with individuals or groups of
individuals (eg e-mail, mailing lists);
III. transactional services - allow completion / submission by citizens of the administrative
forms, payment of taxes on Internet site and / or purchase of products and services online.
Transactional services are considered the most representative in the future for e-
government, so long as the completion and submission of forms by the population will
continue to have a leading role in the relationship with the public administration.
Synthesizing information about the main components of e-government and the
services offered by this, result the following figure:

Figure 1 - Main eGovernment services:

e-Government services

Citizens
Employees Business
- certificates (birth, marriage,
- population - registration of new death)
registry company - medical information
- jobs - admission to education
- Statistics - Procurement - virtual library
- licensing - Car Register - personal documents
- Police - customs tariff - social housing
statements - taxes - building advice
- environmental advices - change of address

Source: Made by authors according to survey information

Italian Government 15, with regions, provinces and city administrations, launched the
National e-government plans in 1997 and 2001 (Bassanini Laws 1997-2001, Phase I, 2001 -
2003, Phase II 2003-2006). The goal was the coordination and use of new tools allowing all
citizens access to e-government services offered by both public administration and private
companies.
A priority objective for the Spanish public administration is personalizing
information services and administrative communication. To this goal, in some sectors of
public administration are developing a series of projects that facilitate citizens' access to

13
Ghilic-Micu Bogdan, Guvernarea electronica, Revista Informatica Economica nr. 1
(21)/2002, Academia de Studii Economice Bucuresti,
www.revistaie.ase.ro/content/21/ghilic.pdf
14
Georgescu Mircea, Curs Birotica, Iasi, 2007 .
15
Maioli Cesare, e-Government and digital inclusion, Legal Framework for the Information
Society, Series 4, Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, Prensas
Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2008, p. 41.

3
personalized information. The best information and communication tools 16 are considered:
one-stop shop, call platforms, service cards and automatic points of management consulting
etc.
The role assumed by citizen can be the one of the simple user of public services or
the role of the taxpayer 17. The last aspect involves the identification of the citizen with the
institution. The term e-democracy 18 means how government uses information and
communications technologies to give citizens easier access to information and increase the
chances of participation in democratic institutions and processes.
Electronic democracy 19 comes from citizen to states, it means from above to up.
Specifically, this is the use by citizens of electronic ways to communicate easily with
government Officials and also with other citizens. Electronic democracy is a tool for Citizens
to Combined by electronic means the debates of the government actions, grievances and
improving proposals for the governance process. The Internet offers all these possibilities
through the portals of electronic democracy 20, the forums 21, mailing lists 22 and personal sites
of opinions. These e-services for e-democracy, called e-democracy tools 23 form the e-
democracy, being complementary to the traditional ones.
The development of e-democracy seems at first, although some useful services 24
were required like: e-participation (e-Participation) and e-voting (e-Vote).
E-participation means the frame of the policies in electronic environment 25 and refer
to each of the 3 key points 26 around which ICT functions: policy, administration and civil
society. In a broader sense, e-participation 27 is a process in which citizens divide information
and knowledge seeking participation in government functions through Information and
Communications Technologies (ICT), especially the Internet, by which they will interact with
political and administrative institutions. Thus, new technologies channels are developed to
facilitate the effective participation in the democratic process and decision making.
Electronic services that make up the e-participation are: e-Information, e-
Consultation and e-Decision making. Electronic voting has two main forms: remote (via
Internet from any computer, via email or by text message or interactive digital TV) and the
local one in voting booths through electronic voting equipment (Direct Recording Equipment
and Voting machines). A polling booth with electronic voting equipment is also called e-
Voting Kiosk. Public institutions increasingly emphasize the idea that e-democracy and e-
participation need a new perception 28 of citizens as owners of an incontestable right to
citizenship rather than as a simple digital user of ICT and online services. This new
perception, when it is put into practice, is helping the development of the democratic process
and giving greater powers of decision to people.

16
Cerrillo i Martinez Agusti, Galan Galan Alfredo, Informe sobre la administracion
electronica local, Informe /Fundacio Pi i Sunyer, d;estudis autonomics in locals, Barcelona,
2009, P. 241.
17
Arenilla Saez Manuel, La reforma administrativa desde el ciudadano, Coleccion Estudios,
Ministerio de Administraciones Publicas, Instituto Nacional de Administracion Publica,
Madrid, 2003, P. 253.
18
Fernando Galindo, Francisco Javier Garcia Marco, Pilar Lasala Calleja, Electronic
Government, Legal Framework for the Information Society Series 8, Prensas Universitarias
de Zaragoza, Agecia Espanola de Cooperacion International para el Dessarollo, 2009, P. 148.
19
*** Utilizarea calculatorului si a serviciilor electronice, ghid pentru functionarii publici,
2004, http://www.riti-internews.ro/ro/Capitolul%204.pdf
20
www.edemocratie.ro
21
www.forumpolitic.ro
22
www.agora.ro/tic, tic-lobby@agora.ro
23
Dan Vasilache, Guvernarea electronica.O introducere, Editura Casa Cartii de Stiinta, Cluj
Napoca, 2008, p. 271.
24
Idem
25
Castells , 1996.
26
Gronlund, 2001.
27
Maioli Cesare, e-Government and digital inclusion, Legal Framework for the Information
Society, Series 4, Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, Prensas
Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2008, p. 41.
28
Idem, P. 69.

4
 Electronic transformation of the Parliament activity (e-Parliament) is concerning the
making of laws. This process includes citizen’s participation achieved by various means (e-
petitions, for example) that aim to directly influence their elected representatives and legal
decisions. The two issues can be treated, forming a whole in the e-justice (the drafting of
laws) and e-democracy (citizen participation).
In Romania there are 3 major categories of applications 29 for electronic democracy:
1. Voter applications for the organizing of electoral campaigns on the Internet. Most
candidates and parties have websites on the Internet. Other sites have been developed
either by the Internet media groups (Kappa = election.ro, PCNET = alegeri.ro) or by
media groups (elections in online newspapers) and NGOs (CITX Romania -
www.electoral2000 . en);
2. Communication and feedback applications such as: email, mailing list, chat and
forum, which are used by citizens to express opinions on specific discussion groups.
In Romania, the most successful are on private servers or on the ones with free
support from abroad;
3. Logistical and organizational applications, including use of sites for the expression of
complaints, the organization of rallies and demonstrations and are used more
frequently.
To spread eDemocracy have been made conferences and were created projects by
professional organizations. EDemocratiei World Forum30 in Paris is a good environment for
the subject and an organizer for the annual conferences and in the last years have been
organized similar conferences at Vadstena in Sweden 31, London 32 and in Vienna, Austria 33.
The Council of Europe is organizing the Forum 34 for the Future of Democracy. Another
organization ICELE 35 is also active in the British area (by offering a package of software
tools for local e-Democracy) and also the e-Democracy Center 36 in Switzerland.
The utilization of government and electronic democracy applications depends on
access to the Internet, education and changing attitudes. The efficiency of these applications
has resulted in their acceptance by a growing sphere of people, generating positive effects for
the entire society.

2. The need and implications of implementing e-governance and e-democracy

E-government programs were promoted and easily spread in Europe. Citizens,

companies, state institutions are transmitting information and transactions over the Internet
with the state, leading to "boost confidence in new technologies and the democratization of the
society"37. The objectives 38 of implementing new information technologies refer to a more
innovative approach in their use, which consists in changing reactive activities (used to
improve Administration operations) with proactive activities (which new products and
services using Information technologies can offer to Administration).
The degree of development of e-government applications depends directly on the
availability of computers and Internet accessibility. The more advanced stages 39 of e-
government can be found in the U.S., Canada, UK and northern European countries, where
almost all businesses, organizations and families have a computer connected to the Internet.

29
www.edemocratie.ro
30
http://www.edemocracy-forum.com/
31
http://www.ifib.de/
32
http://www.headstar-events.com/edemocracy08/
33
CeDEM - Conference on e-democracy, e-participation and e-voting, Krems, Austria.
34
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Integrated_Projects/Democracy/
35
ICELE (International Centre of Excellence for Local eDemocracy, www.icele.org ) Steven
Clift, http://www.publicus.net/articles/edemresources.html
36
http://edc.unige.ch/
37
Baltac Vasile, Programele eGovernment şi construirea societăţii informaţionale în România,
2001,
http://www.edemocratie.ro/publicatii/Baltac%20-%20eGovernment%20ICPTA%2001.pdf
38
Ministerio para las Administraciones Publicas, Inspeccion General de Servicios de la
Administracion Publica, La modernizacion de los procedimientos de actuacion en la
Administracion Publica, Estudio Delphi , 1990, P. 132.
39
Idem

5
Most of the activities of government institutions are held more easily through e-procurement
solutions. Surveys show that the Internet is the means of making hundreds of thousands of
orders daily and millions of offers, being almost indispensable.
Internet networks are generated in a double sense: both top down and bottom up. In
the first case 40, incorporating the Internet in political and administration processes requires a
tool for creating new institutional capacities in order to improve public services through the
transparency and citizen participation. Virtual spaces of participation promoted by institutions
are introducing a new dimension in the relationship between citizens and public powers and
are creating a democratic culture.
In the second sense 41, generation of bottom-up networks enable the creation of
citizen networks, networks of mutual assistance between strangers, with different
characteristics or in remote areas (community organizing networks, networks of reciprocity
neighboring pressure networks 42, inter-exchange networks of information, training etc),
oriented by resolution of issues facing individuals and teams to the work with the organization
for mobilize pressure for or against specific social policies.
E-government has brought many changes and a new perspective on governance and
government and also its proper functioning. Changes in organization, environment,
employment, processes, culture are public managers specific challenges and define the
specific request of the New Public Management 43. From its original role of promoting the
strategy of introducing the concept of electronic government, electronic service delivery
management, processing services and government "behavior" managers have become leaders
of e-government. In other words, they create the right balance between cyberspace and users
of e-government responsibility, whether they are citizens, businesses or other forms of
government (vertical and horizontal, national and international level) and government
employees (civil servants). They manage changes using and developing the methodology of
the change by management to ensure the adequate development in the new "states". They
coordinate all activities, relationships and time for acceptance of new norms, principles and
applications for Electronic Management 44. They take an active part in restructuring and
rebuilding of reform actions respecting government services in order to transform the
traditional political organization, serving the open efficient and modern government, as shown
in Figure 2.

40
Pastor Seller Enrique, Participacion ciudadana y gestion de las politicas sociales
municipales, Ediciones de la Universidad de Murcia, Espana, 2009, p. 161.
41
Idem, p. 162.
42
Grupurile de presiune utilizeaza TIC pentru a adresa critici, articula cooperarea si a realiza
actiuni specifice impreuna cu un succes remarcabil (mobilizare contra razboiului din Irak,
2003).
43
Drakulic Mirjana, Drakulić Ratimir, Challenges of eGovernment Posed to Public Managers,
2005,
http://www.nispa.sk/_portal/conf_paper_detail.php?cid=14&fs_papersPage=6&p=750&pid=2
96
44
Idem .

6
 Figure 2 - E-government and interaction between its subjects

Internal circuit

Ministries Local public

Central Government administration
administrative Intranet authorities
authorities

Government Portal
Official Websites

Citizens Business

External Circuit

Source: *** The concept of Electronic Governance, approved by Government Decision

no. 733 of 28 June 2006, Official Gazette 106-111/799, 07.14.2006,
http://en.anrceti.md/files/u1/conceptia_guvernarii_electronice.doc

In such a government, public managers must contribute to efficient management of

electronic records to ensure teamwork, data and information exchange and
interoperability between governmental and administrative organizations, policy-making
based on evidence - adequacy of knowledge management for the use of data and
information and interchange it between different actors, applying the legal framework and
to provide authentic transactions and procedures and reliable government. Risk
management is extremely important when it comes to limiting the of the control inputs
and outputs. Implementation of the 7 basic principles 45 of nationality, privacy, identity,
transparency, acceptance by users, hidden threats and problems of project, risk
management must ensure that government acts as a learning organization, and public
managers as process coordinators.
One of the main tools for developing electronic government in Spain is ¨ Emergency
plan to boost electronic administration ¨ drafted by the Ministry of Science and
Technology and Ministry of Public Administration in 2003. This plan 46 proposes a
focused group of 19 measures in 15 electronic services to broad consequences in quality
of life and the development of enterprises. In particular, it suggests the evolution from a
departmental administrative model, to a user-centered design, enabled by web access to
services.

45
Ibidem
46
Jose Miguel Fernandez, Maria Belen Morala Gomez, Alicia Rodriguez Perez, Raquel Flores
Lopez, Yolanda Fernandez Santos, Cristina Gutierez Lopez, Implementacion de la
information y gestion digital en los ayuntamientos leoneses: Analisis empirico de su utilidad y
nivel de divulgacion, Departamento de Direccion y Economia de la Empresa, Universidad de
Leon, 2010, P. 147. P.48.

7
 A huge problem is ensuring the identity of all parties. Therefore, identity
management guarantees data protection for users of electronic services. In addition to
technological and organizational changes, knowledge, understanding, development and
application of rules of Identity Management for e-governance are essential. The
management policy also has become a discipline, whose concern is the design, analysis,
implementation and effectively use and safely of technology dealing with digital
information.
Knowledge of public managers should be composed of new disciplines of
management, techniques and tools, added to the knowledge standard. E-governance
facilitates proper functioning of the fund of knowledge 47 including: knowledge
management, quality management and digital management.
In the same time, the New Public Management has affected e-government, its
assumptions, rules, options and functions, from the fact that public administration should
function properly and promptly, publicized proceedings, the protection of the rights,
freedoms and interests of persons, attitude of "customer oriented" of public services and
applying market principles to increase efficiency and productivity. New technologies and
electronic services allow the implementation of e-government and major changes occur at
both the domestic level of public institution and externally, affecting citizens.
In the traditional approach, citizens had a negative image of public services, mostly
dissatisfied with their quality. In the poll 48, over 95% of citizens believe that government
services should ensure a level of performance at least equal to the private sector.
Some disadvantages faced by citizens who enter in a government institution are:
endless lines, waiting hours, confusing procedures and excessive bureaucracy. Increasing
scope of electronic administration is fundamentally a complex of potential benefits and a
major impact on citizens, businesses and other users. Gil Garcia y Helbig (2006)
identifies 8 main benefits of electronic administration: 49
1) improves the quality of public services
2) bring greater efficiency and productivity of government processes
3) increase the effectiveness of public policies
4) ensure transparency in public liability
5) increase public participation
6) create a favorable regulatory framework for electronic government
7) create a favorable regulatory framework for information society
8) is reforming government structures.
This reduces the dissatisfaction in the binding relationship between citizen and Public
Administration. In this sense, the citizen get the value of activities of New Public
Management focused on modernization, efficiency and quality.50
"Democratic governments should adopt a new way to approach their work - putting
more emphasis on the relationship with citizens, both in service provision and
development of draft legislation. It is necessary for governments to provide for public
multiple opportunities of information, consultation and participation. "(OECD) 51.

47
Drakulic Mirjana, Drakulić Ratimir, Challenges of eGovernment Posed to Public Managers,
2005,
http://www.nispa.sk/_portal/conf_paper_detail.php?cid=14&fs_papersPage=6&p=750&pid=2
96
48
*** Utilizarea calculatorului si a serviciilor electronice, ghid pentru functionarii publici,
2004, http://www.riti-internews.ro/ro/Capitolul%204.pdf
49
Jose Miguel Fernandez, Maria Belen Morala Gomez, Alicia Rodriguez Perez, Raquel Flores
Lopez, Yolanda Fernandez Santos, Cristina Gutierez Lopez, Implementacion de la
information y gestion digital en los ayuntamientos leoneses: Analisis empirico de su utilidad y
nivel de divulgacion, Departamento de Direccion y Economia de la Empresa, Universidad de
Leon, 2010, P. 38.
50
Arenilla Saez Manuel, La reforma administrativa desde el ciudadano, Coleccion Estudios,
Ministerio de Administraciones Publicas, Instituto Nacional de Administracion Publica,
Madrid, 2003, P. 172.
51
OECD, “Citizens as Partners: Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-
Making”, PUMA Working Group, Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development, 2001.

8
 In order to turn this negative perception, governments should pay special attention to
citizens' problems, which can be solved by upgrading services and improving their
quality. For the same reason, many of the Romanian public institutions are implementing
Quality Management Systems.

Figure 3 - Citizen-oriented services pattern

1. Needs and
expectations
of citizens

5. Main aspects
to be improved 2. Acces
a) to know where to
go and to search for
finding a job
b) getting the job

4. Citizen
perception of the
3. Providing services
quality of service
Criteria: duration,
competence, courtesy,
fairness, efficiency.

Source: *** Utilizarea calculatorului si a serviciilor electronice, ghid pentru functionarii

publici, 2004, http://www.riti-internews.ro/ro/Capitolul%204.pdf

Citizen satisfaction 52 leads to success or failure of the project. It was found that the
projects generated from the needs of citizens had better results (higher number of transactions,
better information, decrease of the number of complaints, employees' work efficiency and
improve the image of the institution) to those generated from the political orders or the desire
to implement new technologies. In order to obtain maximum results is necessary updating of
the public activities based on the reactions of citizens.
Analysis undertaken by Ramilo Araujo (2005) 53 in Spain also focuses on the
development of electronic government in the local by autonomous Basque Community for
knowledge of the ICT utility in these municipalities (improving e-government, e-democracy
and e-government) and find out if there are differences in ICT use after the model of mayors
and of the province where they belong.
Presently, all public administrations have their own websites 54 from the ones which
offers information to citizens, accessibility to public services, to those that serve as channels
of communication with government officials for the citizens to express their demands and
suggestions (or even participate in the management of some public affairs).

52
*** Utilizarea calculatorului si a serviciilor electronice, ghid pentru functionarii publici,
2004, http://www.riti-internews.ro/ro/Capitolul%204.pdf
53
Jose Miguel Fernandez, Maria Belen Morala Gomez, Alicia Rodriguez Perez, Raquel Flores
Lopez, Yolanda Fernandez Santos, Cristina Gutierez Lopez, Implementacion de la
information y gestion digital en los ayuntamientos leoneses: Analisis empirico de su utilidad y
nivel de divulgacion, Departamento de Direccion y Economia de la Empresa, Universidad de
Leon, 2010, P. 47.
54
Cerrillo i Martinez Agusti, Galan Galan Alfredo, Informe sobre la administracion
electronica local, Informe /Fundacio Pi i Sunyer, d;estudis autonomics i locals, Barcelona,
2009, p. 331 .

9
 3. Conditions for development of electronic services and citizen access to e-
services in modern society

To identify in the right way, the conditions for the development of electronic
services, it is necessary that this approach to start from the principles 55 of successful e-
government:
1) Vision / political will, which includes leadership skills and involvement and
integration in overall policy of public management reform and information
society activity;
2) The common systems for cooperation, coordination between agencies and
financing costs of Information and Communications Technology;
3) Citizen -oriented, by facilitating access to services, choice of interaction, citizen
involvement, confidentiality, accountability, monitoring and evaluation
activities.
Online information by e-learning can accelerate the learning and training process in
all areas of special programs to meet those needs.
E-health system has developed by sharing all information in the health sector in order
to improve the use of resources and the care of patients.
Dissemination and sharing of information between central, regional and local
administration can ease implementation of policies. In this way it was reached a new concept
of e-democracy that wants to streamline communication from both the administration to
citizens and in the opposite direction, having an effect of good collaboration. It should be
noted that information about individuals must be confidential, for avoiding negative effects.
Another important effect is to prevent corruption from simple referral of the facts by the
citizens. All this leads to a wide open political process, thus supporting the idea of e-
democracy.
E-government aims to be an effective way of activities by the policies, providing
high quality services and better communication with citizens to achieve general policy
objectives. In present, e-government policies with the e-democracy, are helping traditional
practices to provide information, consultation and citizen participation in decision making.
A key of success in implementing their activities is the administration decision-
making on stages. It is developed more easily by applying new technologies because they
allow a uniformity of programs standards and a more detailed examination of the status of
solved problems. Administration task is to take measures to guide and evaluate changing
traditional government structures and methods with the electronic ones. Important tool in this
process are the monitoring and evaluation results, which correctly used can more clearly
estimate the ultimate goal.
Unifying projects of virtual administration 56 are a group of actions that by their
special characteristics are incentives for the other actions or are the infrastructure needed to
develop other projects. Tomas Martin Rodrigo, general subdirectory of AGE Coordination of
Technology Resources, differentiates various types:
a) Information systems and solutions for common or replicable use: it is about projects
that addresses common management problems and do not add plus value to the
business or public administration management, but which therefore can generate
savings scale and free up resources that can be used in other areas. Among these can
be cited for example: Nedaes (Decentralized Payroll Standard), SICRES
57
(Information System for coding records of entry and exit) and Silice (Information
System for electronic tendering and contracting);
b) Sector management Project: are projects that by their repercussions stimulate the
development of new electronic public services. Among them: Tax Agency's
Automatic Services or Social Security Virtual Office.

55
*** Organizatia pentru Cooperare si Dezvoltare Economica (OCDE), Bedros Naianu Petru,
Avram Gheorghe, Stoica Ovidiu, Popa Alin, Studii despre e-guvernare. Imperativele e-
guvernării, Editura Aisteda, Iasi, 2004.
56
Cerrillo i Martinez Agusti, Galan Galan Alfredo, Informe sobre la administracion
electronica local, Informe /Fundacio Pi i Sunyer, d;estudis autonomics i locals, Barcelona,
2009, P. 188.
57
Idem, P. 189.

10
 c) Inter-administrations projects: are important in that it emphasizes the benefits of
cooperation between different administrations for providing integrated services to
citizens and respecting the competitive companies of different actors. It turns out that
they are absolutely necessary for electronic administration to become reality. Among
these may be mentioned: the single window for companies (VUE, Abati, 2001), work
accidents electronic statement (DELTA), Information System of Public Employment
Services (SISPE, Benito, 2000), embedded projects in the initiative IDA (Inter-
exchange of data between administrations), common European network TESTA.
d) Joint Infrastructure Projects: are horizontal projects, providing technological
infrastructure to be shared on other projects. For example, public administration
portal, an intranet project administration, CERES and the newsletter.
Once these conditions are secured, it can be further analyze the effect of a
phenomenon called digital divide (digital gap), which is actually the difference between
Internet users and those who do not have access to it. Reality shows that the phenomenon
known as the digital gap or digital divide is still evident in the countries of southeastern
Europe, including Romania. From existing data 58, is resulting in increased of a new economy:
the growing expansion of mobile telephony 207% the highest in Europe, the personal
computer market by 22% per year, the number of Internet Service Providers of 100% in
September 2001 compared to January 2000. Both the number of credit cards as the number of
web sites had raised noticeably leading to the spread of electronic commerce. It is estimated 59
that the developed states spend between 1 and 1.5 of the Gross Domestic Product on
Information and Communications Technologies for administrative apparatus that uses public
sector.
However, the negative statistics 60 from 2001 indicated that only 4-5% of the
population has Internet access, computer provision is only 37 people at a computer, face to the
European average of 6.8 people, only 30-40% of the firms are equipped with PCs and even
fewer are connected to the Internet. For a company in Romania an PC computer is equivalent
with 970 hours of labor calculated based on salary costs, while the European Union only 64
hours 61.
As main factors 62 of reducing the digital divide, we can mention: the availability of
information technology, Internet access, reducing classic illiteracy, which in Romania in 2001
was 3% and 80-84% the informatics one. Unfortunately, it was found that managers and
policy makers have serious gaps in this area.
A survey 63 conducted in 2001 ask of a number of people if they know what are certain
concepts or phrases specific for the information society. The sample consists of young people
between 25-40 years with the declared desire to improve post-graduate, so with training above
the national average. However 22% do not know and and 13% just suspect what is a byte /
octet, only 6% know what it is B2B or 128-bit encryption. With all the media coverage of
electronic signature law only 22% said they know what it is, the rest just guess they know or
do not know at all. The following chart details the answers to some of the significant questions
concerning e-governance. The answers give a image much above the national average because
from the sample just 8% are graduates of faculties of computers and 87% currently access the
Internet.

58
Baltac Vasile, Programele eGovernment şi construirea societăţii informaţionale în România,
2001
http://www.edemocratie.ro/publicatii/Baltac%20-%20eGovernment%20ICPTA%2001.pdf
59
Eduard Aibar y Ferran Urgell, Estado, democracia y red, Administracion electronica y
cambio organizativo, La Era de la Informacion en Catalunya, Generalitat de Catalunya,
Editorial UOC, Ariel, Book Print Digital, Barcelona, 2007, P. 23.
60
Idem
61
Baltac Vasile, eBusiness as Opportunity to Bridge Digital Divide, 2nd Conference on
Digital Economy Development in Romania and South East Europe, Bucharest, October 4-5,
2001 organized by UN Economic Commision for Europe, http://portal.softnet.ro/papers
62
Baltac Vasile, Programele eGovernment şi construirea societăţii informaţionale în România,
2001
http://www.edemocratie.ro/publicatii/Baltac%20-%20eGovernment%20ICPTA%2001.pdf
63
Idem

11
 Figure 4 - Answers to questions about e-government

Source: Baltac Vasile, Programele eGovernment şi construirea societăţii informaţionale în

România, 2001
http://www.edemocratie.ro/publicatii/Baltac%20-%20eGovernment%20ICPTA%2001.pdf

At the few computers and Internet accessibility and the lack of training in the use of
information technology can add some problems 64 of managerial mentality that manifests itself
by ignoring or even the rejection of new technologies. These mentalities are generated mostly
by the lack of training in the use of new technologies. There are also difficulties in the
implementation of national projects, mainly for lack of user acceptance of information
technology even though the effort to simplify their interface is remarkable.
The hallmark of the Information Society is the accessibility of information and
services (including for people with disabilities), considered a priority in the eEurope + action
program by the governments of European countries. In order to expand citizen access to
electronic services, the public must have websites 65 with updated information, arranged on
segments of content for easy access. Such web sites must be made compatible with any
browser. It is recommended to use clear phrases and at least one international language.
Some ideas 66 of e-government for a better administration are:
1) User-oriented electronic government
2) Efficient provision of services in several ways
3) Identifying collaborative business processes
4) E-government business perspective
5) Coordination of e-government.
To be effective, web development should take into account a number of basic
principles that have been analyzed by different authors. Thus, for example, the United
Kingdom 67 has drafted various documents about the development of public Web sites, for
example the report UK government site Guide, since 2003.

64
Ibidem
65
*** Utilizarea calculatorului si a serviciilor electronice, ghid pentru funcţionarii publici,
2004, http://www.riti-internews.ro/ro/Capitolul%204.pdf
66
Gobierno de Espana, Ministerio de Administraciones Publicas, Organizacion para la
Cooperacion y el Desarrollo Economico (OCDE), Instito Nacional de Administracion
Publica, E-gobierno para un mejor gobierno, Collection Estudios y Documentos, Madrid,
2008, P. 192.
67
Jose Miguel Fernandez, Maria Belen Morala Gomez, Alicia Rodriguez Perez, Raquel Flores
Lopez, Yolanda Fernandez Santos, Cristina Gutierez Lopez, Implementacion de la
information y gestion digital en los ayuntamientos leoneses: Analisis empirico de su utilidad y
nivel de divulgacion, Departamento de Direccion y Economia de la Empresa, Universidad de
Leon, 2010, P. 194.

12
 In Spanish literature, Lara Navarra and Martinez Usero (2003) propose a model for
the 10 best practices 68 for developing Web sites, related to electronic government:
1) To be attractive, usable and accessible
2) Work in coordination with other organizations
3) Services for citizens
4) Efficiently contained
5) Promoting confidence
6) Attention to citizens
7) Multiple access channels proposal
8) Continuous evaluation
9) Promoting Web Site
10) Management of products and services.
In recent years a new concept has expanded, both in academic and in the participants
context: e-Governance 69. The main argument in favor of the new feature is the aspect of
governance that goes beyond the exclusive environment of government and administration,
which includes the activities of other organizations that participate in a direct or indirect in
public space management (Peters y Pierre, 2001; Mayntz, 2001). Even in the restrictive
environment of public services, participation at their creation, delivery or management of
external social actors in their Administration (private companies, NGOs, associations, etc.) is
increasingly important, without forgetting that in many areas of public service participate in
administrations of different levels simultaneously. In fact, many of the technological systems
that are part of the concept of Electronic Administration are designed to make the link or to
coordinate the activities of this context of heterogeneous entities.

Conclusions

Once with the expanding use of computers and the Internet, citizens can benefit from
public services easier. Information Society broke decisively in the public sector activities
through e-government and e-democracy applications.
Synthesizing the definitions offered in the literature, e-governance is the use of
information and communication technologies to optimize delivery of public services and
citizen participation in policy-making process and public consultation. This process is
achieved through new information management techniques, resulting in increasing political
participation of citizens. Implementation of e-government comes from the state to citizens,
from top to bottom. The main components of e-government are: Government - Government,
with a sub-category of government - government employees, Government - Citizen and
Government-Business, with 2 applications: public procurement systems and private sector
services both offered by the state through the Internet.
Most major e-government services are divided into three categories: information
services, interactive communication services and transaction services.
Electronic democracy comes from citizen to state, that is inverted. The Internet offers
various possibilities of communication through the portals of electronic democracy, the
forums, mailing lists and personal opinions sites. The development of e-democracy seems at
first, although some useful services were required, like: e-participation (e-information, e-
consultation, e-decision) and e-voting (virtual, remote and local cabs stations). Parliament
electronic business transformation, e-Parliament, may be influenced by e-petitions, together
forming the concept of e-justice. There are 3 major categories of applications for electronic
democracy: voter applications, communication applications and feedback and logistical and
organizational applications. To spread e-democracy, have been held conferences and have
been created special projects. Utilization of government applications and electronic
democracy depends on the availability of computers, internet access, education and changing
attitudes (from reactive to proactive ones).
Changes in organization, environment, employment, processes, culture are public
managers specific challenges and define the specific request of the New Public Management
(e-managing). From its original role of promoting the strategy of introducing the concept of

68
Idem.
69
Eduard Aibar y Ferran Urgell, Estado, democracia y red, Administracion electronica y
cambio organizativo, La Era de la Informacion en Catalunya, Generalitat de Catalunya,
Editorial UOC, Ariel, Book Print Digital, Barcelona, 2007, P. 30.

13
electronic government, electronic service delivery management, processing services and
"behavior" government leaders have become managers of e-government.
A huge problem is ensuring the identity of all parties. Therefore, identity
management guarantees data protection for users of electronic services. It is necessary for
governments to provide multiple opportunities for public for information, consultation and
participation. In general, the projects arising from the needs of citizens were superior to those
resulting from political desiring to implement new technologies.
The development of electronic services comes from the success principles of e-
governance, namely: political will, common systems of cooperation between government
agencies and citizen -oriented. Also, online services have proven useful in other online areas
such as education (e-learning) and health (e-health). A key to success in implementing their
activities is the administration decision-making stages. Important tools in this process are the
monitoring and evaluation results, which used correctly, can more clearly estimate the
ultimate goal. Unifying projects of virtual administration are a group of actions that by their
special characteristics are incentives for the other actions or are the infrastructure needed to
develop other projects. These are divided into various categories: information systems and
solutions for common or replicable use, sector project management, projects between
administrations, common infrastructure projects.
The phenomenon called digital divide (digital gap), is actually the difference between
Internet users and those who do not have access to it. As main factors reducing the digital
divide, we can mention: the availability of information technology, Internet access, reducing
classic illiteracy and the informatics one.
The hallmark of the Information Society is the accessibility of information and
services (including people with disabilities), considered a priority in the eEurope + action
program by the governments of European countries. In order to expand citizen access to
electronic services, the public must have websites with updated information, arranged on the
segments of content in various international languages, for easy access.
Some ideas of e-governance for better administration are: user-oriented electronic
government, efficient provision of services in several ways, identifying collaborative business
processes, e-government business perspective and e-government coordination.

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14
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15

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