E-Governance
E-Governance: A Review
Introduction
E-governance was discussed in M. Joe Moon’s article “The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Relity?” and Genie N.L. Stowers’s “Issues in E-Commerce and E-Government Service Delivery.” The main point emphasized in both articles is how technology has flourished communication where discussions changed from text based to graphic-based. Stowers (2004) mentioned that the emergence of technology based communication tools allowed individual-based democratic communication to flounder. Furthermore, Moon (2002) stipulates that the move towards E-government its effectiveness, implementation and development still remains misunderstood.
Summary
In Moon’s article E-governance is defined as a core element of managerial reform established through information technology. E-government is believed to be a prominent future of governance. The study was designed to examine the state of governance in municipal levels by analyzing the data obtained from 2000 E-government survey administered by City/County Management Association and Public Technologies Inc. (Moon, 2002). The objective is to explore the institutional factors that contribute to the transformation of E-governance in municipalities. The results of the study concluded that government type and size is are the contributing factors attributed to the development and implementation of e-government. The study also suggests that municipalities are still on the primary level of development when it comes to e-government implementation. Therefore, e-governance in the municipal level is a reality that emerges amidst changing technological advancement.
On the other hand, Stowers’s article focuses specifically on the issue on the emerging fields of government service delivery. Performance measure, infrastructure and security are among the major concerns in the implementation of e-governance and e-commerce (Stowers, 2004). The main point of the study is to determine whether the aforementioned factors affect service delivery through literature review and analysis of related researches. It was concluded from the study that service delivery is greatly affected by the existing issues on security as new technology emerges and lack of performance measure exposes e-government and e-commerce to a wide array of vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the study points out that issues attributed to the aforementioned factors greatly affects service delivery that are intended for the stakeholders.
Evaluation
Both articles have demonstrated expertise of the subject by successfully conveying the important context of the topic being discussed, which are appropriately explored using their expertise in the field of Public Service and Governance. In terms of information gathering, both authors have employed appropriate methods such as survey analysis and literature review. Although, there could have been a more structured methodology if both authors formulated their own method of data gathering such as administering their own survey or conducted interviews. However, the validity and accuracy of the evidence used are still at par because of the use of credible sources. Given the nature of data and interpretation done by both authors, it can be assumed that the readers will arrive in the same conclusion. Furthermore, the authors were able to build a logical argument that directly confers to the article’s topic of discussion. Therefore, both authors were successful in conveying their point and arguments on the issues presented.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the points of argument presented by the authors are agreeable because the topic they were able to address the topic issues effectively by presenting succinct thesis statement backed by relevant literatures. The use of literatures and relative studies significantly increases the level of credibility and validity of every research. In the reviewed articles, evidences were presented in a manner that they compliment the given thesis statements, which in return enabled the authors to create plausible conclusions.
References
Moon, J. (2002). The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality?. Public Administration Review, 62(4), 424-433.
Stowers, G. (2004). Issues in E-Commerce and E-Government Service Delivery . Idea Group Inc, 169,
