discourse analysis of the ethical in iri policy documents on e-governance

: ethics has been a subject of interest since the birth of philosophy. however, significance of ethics in modern time is more salient; time of ubiquity of technology in every aspect of human life. ethics similar to any human phenomenon has to do with language and in understanding it thoroughly, such features have to be examined. this research seeks to critically study the ethics in e-government using discourse analysis methodology. in other words, the main focus of the article would be social construction of official ethics in e-government policy documents. following descriptive-analytical- critical approach to the subject, critical discourse analysis (cda) is adopted. analyzing policy documents, it is revealed that ethics in e-government is mainly technical in accordance with neo-liberalism which incorporates politics and administration.