THE EMERGENCE of the digital era is now the most pervasive and structurally distinctive influence on how governance arrangements are changing and facilitating an unprecedented universality and immediacy of information in industrial states.
The importance of government information technology systems for societal development continues to grow.
Modern information and communication technology systems, based on the Internet, are increasingly underpinning trade, economic exchanges, and collective services.
In core state functions, IT databases and central networks have become fundamental with developments such as e-borders transforming traditional administrative and legal operations.
Yet, despite these discernible global changes, a leading political scientist in the region once asked with eyes “wide shut”, “what is e-government?”. This author found the question rather humorous, particularly, from someone whose specialisation is political economy!
Equally, others have asked at the university in the 21st Century, “why is the university teaching courses on e-government and e-governance?”
Once cannot ascribe blame for this condescension over the discourse on e-government and e-governance. Social science disciplines in the region have proven hardly receptive or attentive to the growing importance of the challenges and opportunities that ICTs present to governance.
A number of factors have contributed to this under appreciation. One prominent but obvious reason for this restraint is that many organisations and professionals in developing countries do not care to assess or know the potential benefits derived from ICT applications. Another reason might lie in the very complexity of e-government related problems and phenomena, which criss-cross the boundaries of organisational, social, and information sciences, statistics, law, and ethics in search of solutions to implementation challenges.
Another could be a double blind effect of prefixing the labels “e”, “electronic” or “digital” before governance and government, conjuring up images of hardcore engineering, sublimating the necessity for the complementary disciplines of public administration, public policy, and the like.
Moreover, in some quarters, there have been signs of increasing weariness with new technology-oriented business models, under the generic rubric of “business process engineering”, emanating from the private sectors and schools of management, into the public sector without the promised political, economic, and social transformation.
Yet another reason could be that since the introduction of e concepts such as e-business, e-commerce, e-government and e-governance into the social consciousness “e-xcitement” has spiralled out of proportion and the ever longer list of hilarious new e-words coincides with the growing academic and policy discontent with them as nothing more than fads.
For those who can discern the trends and transformations ICTs can have on governance, this is a cause for concern.
The development and diffusion of ICT’s is significantly altering the structure of our society. ICT-enabled governance offers one possibility of good governance, fusing both processing and communication technologies to integrate people, processes, information, and technology toward achieving: governance that is cheaper, producing the same outputs at lower total cost; governance that does more, producing more outputs at the same total cost; governance that is quicker, producing the same outputs at the same total cost in less time; governance that works better, producing the same outputs at the same total cost in the same time, but to a higher quality standard and; governance that is innovative, producing new outputs.
ICT-enabled e-government offers a plethora of significant services in e-administration aimed at reducing the costs and increasing the speed of processes and decision making, and/or creating more flexible and responsive process.
Dr Pearson Broome is a lecturer in political science and programme coordinator for the MSc in e-governance for developing countries and the post graduate diploma in public sector management at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.