E-governance in the United States

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Electronic governance (e-governance) in the United States describes the systems by which information and communication technology are used to allow citizens, businesses and other government agencies to access state and federal government services online. Since the increased use of the Internet in the 1990s, people in the United States can now access many government programs online, including electronic voting, [1] health care and tax returns. They can also access governmental data that were not previously available.[ example needed ]

Contents

Three models of interaction in e-government

According to Andrew Chadwick and Christopher May, in their article Interaction between States and Citizens in the Age of the Internet: “e-Government” in the United States, Britain, and the European Union, there are three major models of interaction associated with e-government, the managerial, the consultative and the participatory. [2]

Although at any given time these models of interaction can stand alone as the ideal form of involvement between the parties, often they overlap and provide multiple forms of interaction. These three models show potential ways for citizen and government interaction, there are advantages and disadvantages to the implementation of e-government and how it can affect people involved in the political process in the United States.

Citizen involvement

Understanding the involvement and interaction between government and its citizens through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is crucial when discussing e-governance in the United States. Holden defines e-government as “the delivery of government services and information electronically 24 hours per day, seven days per week.” [3]

There are many benefits associated with e-governance in the United States and the involvement of citizens in the process. Due to e-governance, relevant information is more readily available to the public, while governmental programs become less expensive and more efficient. This allows most citizens to become part of the political process without leaving the comfort of their home. This increases the number of people willing to be involved in democracy and voice their opinions due to the instant access to the government.

Another benefit in citizen involvement in e-government is building trust between the citizens and the state. Over the past decades there has been a decline in citizens overall trust in the government. With such easy access to information, government programs and officials, e-government provides the perfect platform to start building the trust between these two parties.

There are also a few potential issues with citizen involvement associated with e-government.

Citizen involvement stems from problems with the actual technology used for e-governance and the potential that it will not always function as it is supposed to. A good example of this was the problems with the healthcare.gov website that was established to help citizens with healthcare information and enrollment during the Obama Administration. [4] Since the technology initially did not consistently work, this limited the initial effectiveness of the program and ultimately made it more difficult instead of more efficient. The website has since been modified in the attempt to continue providing this healthcare e-governance service.

Information dispersal and public engagement

Information dispersal and public engagement are key to the success of e-governance. However, the process of successfully engaging the public is quite complex. Due to the wide range of Internet advancements in recent years, the coordination of public engagement is difficult. Yet, the common desire to stay informed and find accessible methods to govern remains crucial.

Prospective future of e-governance

The focus of technological implementation during each generation has faced a new and difficult sets of challenges. Previously, size and cost and function caused there to be a small focused use of computers. As computers became cost efficient and versatile there was difficulty dealing with the management of the new technology. Increasingly, privacy and security are becoming important issues. [5] Since technology permeates our society and all of our lives are within the digital spectrum a whole new dimension of vulnerabilities is now needing to be addressed.

Currently, the focus majority of the government application has been the increase in efficiency and information and communication technologies. In the future, this trend will continue. Recently, increased emphasis has been placed in democratic engagement.

As new technology is developed new rules and policies have to be crafted, and old policies adapted, each time adding another layer of complexity to integration and potentially mitigating benefits from embracing new technology. [6] Many government agencies have struggled to adjust to the adoption of digital data. Other agencies struggle to control the flow of information such as security and police organizations not sharing information, and the controversial gathering of too much information.

If e-governance in the United States is to advance the demand more sophisticated technological solutions for encryption, information sharing, and interactive communication will need to be addressed.

Related Research Articles

E-government is the use of technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet, to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offers new opportunities for more direct and convenient citizen access to government and for government provision of services directly to citizens.

Medical privacy, or health privacy, is the practice of maintaining the security and confidentiality of patient records. It involves both the conversational discretion of health care providers and the security of medical records. The terms can also refer to the physical privacy of patients from other patients and providers while in a medical facility, and to modesty in medical settings. Modern concerns include the degree of disclosure to insurance companies, employers, and other third parties. The advent of electronic medical records (EMR) and patient care management systems (PCMS) have raised new concerns about privacy, balanced with efforts to reduce duplication of services and medical errors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public participation (decision making)</span> Extent to which societies encourage the people to share in organizational decision-making

Citizen Participation or Public Participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. Participatory decision-making can take place along any realm of human social activity, including economic, political, management, cultural or familial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-democracy</span> Use of information and communication technology in political and governance processes

E-democracy, also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in political and governance processes. The term is credited to digital activist Steven Clift. By using 21st-century ICT, e-democracy seeks to enhance democracy, including aspects like civic technology and E-government. Proponents argue that by promoting transparency in decision-making processes, e-democracy can empower all citizens to observe and understand the proceedings. Also, if they possess overlooked data, perspectives, or opinions, they can contribute meaningfully. This contribution extends beyond mere informal disconnected debate; it facilitates citizen engagement in the proposal, development, and actual creation of a country's laws. In this way, e-democracy has the potential to incorporate crowdsourced analysis more directly into the policy-making process.

Governance is the process of making and enforcing decisions within an organization or society. It is the process of interactions through the laws, social norms, power or language as structured in communication of an organized society over a social system. It is done by the government of a state, by a market, or by a network. It is the process of choosing the right course among the actors involved in a collective problem that leads to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of acceptable conduct and social order". In lay terms, it could be described as the political processes that exist in and between formal institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic health record</span> Digital collection of patient and population electronically stored health information

An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared through network-connected, enterprise-wide information systems or other information networks and exchanges. EHRs may include a range of data, including demographics, medical history, medication and allergies, immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology images, vital signs, personal statistics like age and weight, and billing information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Participatory budgeting</span>

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. Participatory budgeting allows citizens or residents of a locality to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent.

Community health refers to simple health services that are delivered by laymen outside hospitals and clinics. Community health is also the subset of public health that is taught to and practiced by clinicians as part of their normal duties. Community health volunteers and community health workers work with primary care providers to facilitate entry into, exit from and utilization of the formal health system by community members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civic engagement</span> Individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern

Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.

Electronic governance or e-governance is the application of information technology for delivering government services, exchange of information, communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems between government to citizen (G2C), government-to-business (G2B), government-to-government (G2G), government-to-employees (G2E) as well as back-office processes and interactions within the entire governance framework. Through e-governance, government services are made available to citizens through IT. The three main target groups that can be distinguished in governance concepts are government, citizens, and businesses/interest groups.

Electronic participation (e-participation) refers to the use of ICT in facilitating citizen participation in government-related processes, encompassing areas such as administration, service delivery, decision-making, and policy-making. As such, e-participation shares close ties with e-government and e-governance participation. The term's emergence aligns with the digitization of citizen interests and interactions with political service providers, primarily due to the proliferation of e-government.

Public participation, also known as citizen participation or patient and public involvement, is the inclusion of the public in the activities of any organization or project. Public participation is similar to but more inclusive than stakeholder engagement.

Participatory GIS (PGIS) or public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) is a participatory approach to spatial planning and spatial information and communications management.

Public engagement or public participation is a term that has recently been used to describe "the practice of involving members of the public in the agenda-setting, decision-making, and policy-forming activities of organizations/institutions responsible for policy development." It is focused on the participatory actions of the public to aid in policy making based in their values.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Health policy</span> Policy area that deals with the health system of a country or other organization

Health policy can be defined as the "decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society". According to the World Health Organization, an explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future; it outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups; and it builds consensus and informs people.

Patient participation is a trend that arose in answer to medical paternalism. Informed consent is a process where patients make decisions informed by the advice of medical professionals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common Service Centres</span> Indian government facilities

Common Service Centres (CSC) are physical facilities for delivering Government of India e-Services to rural and remote locations where availability of computers and Internet was negligible or mostly absent. They are multiple-services-single-point model for providing facilities for multiple transactions at a single geographical location.

Health 3.0 is a health-related extension of the concept of Web 3.0 whereby the users' interface with the data and information available on the web is personalized to optimize their experience. This is based on the concept of the Semantic Web, wherein websites' data is accessible for sorting in order to tailor the presentation of information based on user preferences. Health 3.0 will use such data access to enable individuals to better retrieve and contribute to personalized health-related information within networked electronic health records, and social networking resources.

Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses information and communication technologies to facilitate understanding of health problems and challenges faced by people receiving medical treatment and social prescribing in more personalised and precise ways. The definitions of digital health and its remits overlap in many ways with those of health and medical informatics.

Morten Kyng is a Danish computer science researcher and author. He is a member of Association of Computing Machinery's Computer-Human Interaction Academy member. He is a ubiquitous computing professor at Aarhus University. He is a Member of Board of Directors of Østjysk Innovation and the Director of the Centre for Pervasive Healthcare, a research centre that studies the use of pervasive computer technologies to provide healthcare solutions.

References

  1. ERR, Dr Robert Krimmer, Dr David Duenas-Cid and Iuliia Krivonosova | (2020-04-13). "TalTech researchers: Why the pandemic may pave the way for online voting". ERR. Retrieved 2020-04-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Chadwick, Andrew; May, Christopher (April 2003). "Interaction between States and Citizens in the Age of the Internet: "e-Government" in the United States, Britain, and the European Union". Governance. 16 (2): 271–300. doi: 10.1111/1468-0491.00216 .
  3. Holden, Stephen H.; Norris, Donald F.; Fletcher, Patricia D. (1 June 2003). "Electronic Government at the Local Level: Progress to Date and Future Issues". Public Performance & Management Review. 26 (4): 325–344. doi:10.1177/1530957603026004002.
  4. Goldstein, Amy; Eilperin, Juliet; Sun, Lena H. (18 November 2013) [13 November 2013]. "Troubled HealthCare.gov Unlikely to Work Fully by End of November". The Washington Post .
  5. Dawes, Sharon S. (21 October 2008). "The Evolution and Continuing Challenges of E-Governance". Public Administration Review. 68: S86–S102. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00981.x.
  6. Chadwick, Andrew (November 2003). "Bringing E-Democracy Back In: Why it Matters for Future Research on E-Governance". Social Science Computer Review. 21 (4): 443–455. doi:10.1177/0894439303256372. S2CID   154901056.

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