Public Expectations and Public Scrutiny: An Agenda for Research in the Context of E-Government

There has been a veritable ‘boom’ in the number of new E-Government projects and initiatives in recent years. Not very long ago, the world witnessed a ‘Dotcom boom’ that later turned out to be ‘bubble’ predicated on deceptive information, faulty speculation and ‘irrational exuberance.’ A large number of E-Commerce offerings were made available that people simply had no use for, or that otherwise failed to meet expectations. In light of that experience, in order to avoid the costly mistakes of the past, it may be it may be timely to examine the phenomenon of the ‘E-Government boom’ and investigate how the E-Government agenda is being driven. This paper posits that E-Government’s most legitimate stakeholder, i.e. the user public, is being largely left out of the loop during the conceptualization, development and implementation of E-Government programs. This paper calls for research in order to 1) comprehensively understand and measure public expectations from EGovernment systems 2) determine whether current E-Government initiatives deliver in accordance with public expectations from such initiatives; and 3) determine how E-Government systems may be developed such that they conform to public expectations from them. Additionally, a strategy for measuring ‘public expectations’ from E-Government is offered. Surveys show that greater government accountability is the single most important outcome that citizens desire from E-Government. However, contemporary research in E-Government has not adequately addressed the issue of whether and how E-Government systems improve the potential for ‘public scrutiny’ over government functioning. This paper calls for research in order to 1) determine how E-Government initiatives impact public scrutiny of government functioning and 2) determine how E-Government systems may be designed, developed and implemented such that they do increase public scrutiny over government functioning. Additionally, a strategy for measuring the potential for ‘public scrutiny’ of E-Government projects is outlined.