“it’s the Economy Stupid” - Why the Swedish E-government Action Plan Will Not Deliver Better Government, and How It Could

The Swedish 2008 Government’s Action Plan on eGovernment offers old wine (focussed on technology rather than on services; production-centred rather than needs-based) in old bottles (closed political systems rather than open infrastructure; no measurements and, consequently, no incentives for government agencies to change). This paper analyzes the Plan based on an Enterprise Architecture integration perspective, shows why the proposed measures are not productive, and suggests an alternative route to remedy the shortcomings. The fundamental underpinning idea is that an open infrastructure should replace one negotiated in a piecemeal manner by the largest stakeholders. The paper proposes an open information infrastructure model to replace the one based on politics and negotiations suggested in the Plan. Within the Swedish government model such an infrastructure has to be placed under the jurisdiction of a dedicated agency.