The Introduction of E-Government in Switzerland : Many Sparks, No Fire

This book studies the question of e-Government development from a multi-faceted perceptive. The first introductory chapter outlines the importance of public sector digitalisation. The second chapter clarifies the used e-Government terminology and divides the concept between electronic public service delivery and electronic practice of democracy. Influential factors having an impact on the introduction of e-Government projects are divided between those of organisational, institutional, individual and technological nature and discussed in detail in the third chapter. The fourth chapter presents empirical findings from the Swiss case study that constitutes both an exceptional and exemplary model of e-Government development. High quality of public services and the participative style of democracy would seem to predestine the country to be the precursor in the field of e-Government. However, the state of e-Government development does not correspond to the potential that Swiss contextual conditions offer. The importance of the Swiss case study for the understanding of e-Government as an institutional and organisational transformation is outlined in the fifth chapter. Tereza Cahlikova is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration in Lausanne, Switzerland. Contents List of Figures List of Tables Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Some Theoretical Considerations 1.1.1 e-Government Is a Public Innovation 1.1.2 The Significance of Institutionalist Anchoring for e-Government 1.2 Research Method 1.2.1 Case Selection 1.2.2 Methodological Approach References Chapter 2: Defining e-Government 2.1 Disentangling e-Government Terminology 2.2 Electronic Public Service Delivery 2.3 Electronic Practice of Democracy References Chapter 3: Drivers of and Barriers to e-Government 3.1 Technological and Operational Antecedents of e-Government 3.2 Individual Antecedents of e-Government 3.2.1 Innovation Leaders 3.2.2 Political Support 3.3 Organisational Antecedents of e-Government 3.4 Institutional Antecedents of e-Government 3.4.1 State Structure and Coordination 3.4.2 Legal Frameworks 3.5 Models of Democracy 3.6 Other Factors References Chapter 4: The Introduction of e-Government in Switzerland 4.1 Institutional Level of Analysis 4.1.1 Bottom-Up Federalism 4.1.2 Technology Transfer 4.1.3 Embeddedness in a Legal Environment 4.2 Organisational Level of Analysis 4.2.1 E-Government Is Not a Technological Innovation 4.2.2 Changing Relations Between the Public Administration and Citizens 4.2.3 Best Practices in Transformational Government 4.2.4 Shift in the All-Knowing Administrative Culture 4.3 Individual Level of Analysis 4.3.1 “Why change what works” and the Know-How of Innovation Leaders 4.3.2 Political Mandate 4.4 Resource-Related Factors 4.5 Electronic Citizen Participation 4.5.1 Electronic Voting 4.5.2 Impact of Digitalisation on the Swiss Direct Democracy 4.5.3 The Vision of e-Participation 4.6 The Puzzle of e-Government Development in Switzerland References Chapter 5: Concluding Remarks References Index