Understanding E-Government in Europe

Issues and Challenges

Edited by Paul G. Nixon, Vassiliki N. Koutrakou, Rajash Rawal

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About the Book

This book charts, explains and assesses the challenges that governments face and how various factors play a role before we can even begin to speak of successful transferral to e-government. Presenting a multi-disciplinary approach, it analyses a range of challenges spanning from those of a technological and managerial nature to those of a more political and legal nature. It brings together a wide range of divergent views to provide a coherent and convincing explanation of the challenges and difficulties experienced. The authors examine and critique the central policies at governmental and organisational levels and analyse the following challenges faced by e-government, its implementers and its users in all spheres:

This comprehensive text will be of interest to students and scholars of public policy, politics, media and communication studies, sociology, information and communications technologies and management, and European studies, as well as practitioners and policy-makers in regional, national, and transnational governance, reform and innovation.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction Part 1: The fundamentals of e-government 2. Development of E- Government Bill Dutton 3. What is E-Gov for? Filipe Montargil 4. Technology (hindrance, barrier, etc.) Paul McCusker Part 2: Conceptual Challenges 5. Power & Democracy Mike Margolis and Gerson Moreno-Riaño 6. Inclusion Brian Loader 7. Accountability in the Context of E-government Dimitra I. Petrakaki 8. Privacy Charles Raab Part 3: E-government in practice 9. Identity Management & Public Service Provision Mirjam Lips, John Taylor & Joe Organ 10. Biometrics Juliet Lodge, University of Leeds 11. "Elected Politicians and their ‘Tastes’ for E-Democracy – The Dutch Experience" Arthur Edwards 12. Challengers to traditional E-Government (NGOs) Paul Nixon & Laura Sudulich 13. Applying e-government to International Regional Organisations V. N. Koutrakou Part 4: Perceptions and subversions 14. Perceptions of E-Gov in Media Paul Nixon 15. Cyberterror Rajash Rawal 16. Conclusions

About the Author(s)

Paul G. Nixon is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the The Hague University of Professional Education, the Netherlands. Haagse. He has contributed chapters to many edited collections on the use of ICTs particularly in the fields of political parties, electronic democracy and social welfare. He has co-edited three previous collections for Routledge E-Government in Europe (with Vassiliki Koutrakou 2007), Political Parties and the Internet for (with Steve Ward and Rachel Gibson 2003.) and Cyberprotest (with Wim van der Donk, Brian Loader and Dieter Rucht, 2004) He has also published in the fields of culture and literature including editing a collection entitled Representations of Education in Literature (Edwin Mellen Press 2000). He has recently been appointed as an Editorial Member for the Routledge Journal ‘Information, Communication & Society’.


Vassiliki N. Koutrakou is a lecturer in European Studies and Director of the Centre for Research in European Studies (CREST) at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. Publications include the book Technological Collaboration for Europe's Survival (Avebury, 1995), the edited collections European Union and Britain: Debating the Challenges Ahead (with L.A. Emerson, eds) (Macmillan 2000) , Contemporary Issues and Debates in EU Policy – The EU and International Relations (MUP 2004) and E-Government in Europe (with Paul G. Nixon) (Routledge 2007)


Rajash Rawal is a lecturer in European Politics at HEBO, Haagse Hogeschool, The Netherlands. He is a visiting lecturer at the Fachochschule, Eisenstadt, Austria and the Department of European Studies, Budapest Business School. He is a research fellow within the European Public Management Research Group. He specializes in the impact of media on political agents in the modern era and has written a number of papers around this theme.