E-GOVERNMENT FRAMEWORKS AND OPPORTUNITIES TOWARDS BETTER STAKEHOLDERS’ ENGAGEMENT A theoretical and practical analysis on Western Balkans

Today we live in a world of networks and communities. There is a general trend towards freedom of expression, identity and being. At the same time we have to give up part of our time, privacy and freedom to become part of these systems. The information technology has contributed to all this, providing a more connected and at the same time interdependent reality. In this virtual environment, e-government, the subject of this study, has a crucial role in connecting government, businesses, citizens and their engagement. There is however another level of e-government engagement considered here, that goes beyond the national context, focusing on the role of international organizations towards higher global interaction and collaboration. After a critical review of the general implications of information society, this study focuses on a framework of engagement between Government, Businesses and Citizens presented as the GBC model. This analysis however is not sufficient to understand and improve e-government applications in a global network society. Therefore New Public Management, a business-like approach to public administration is critically considered to turn e-government challenges into opportunities. The final goal is to define a better role of international organizations to promote better cooperation and engagement of member countries and their governments, businesses and citizens. E-GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORKS AND EVALUATION Many would argue that Max Weber’s definition of the state as “a human community that claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of force over a given territory and people” is not anymore complete (Barney 2004). As pointed out by Held and McGrew (2007), governments and states are giving up some of their sovereignty to become part of the global networks such as UN or EU in the ever “shrinking world” we live in. In this political context, sovereign physical and territorial boundaries of power, influence and legitimacy are being replaces by more fluid structures of information society. New means of communication are giving birth to changes in politics and public communications. It is at this point that e-government rises not only as a form of IT solutions. Ideally it could be a platform for better governance, transparency and efficiency through higher stakeholders’ engagement. But what is e-government? Although it is difficult to give a clear answer to this, it can be defined as the use of Information and Communication Technologies as a tool to achieve better Endrit Kromidha Royal Holloway, University of London government (OECD 2003) through enhanced access and delivery of public services to citizens and different stakeholders (Deloitte Research 2000). Most of the literature on e-government is related to its practical uses towards better communication among institutions, democracy, fighting corruption and in general increasing transparency and state efficiency. Taxes, procurement, employment, property, and online central databases are some of the sectors most influenced by the information society. Bearing this in mind, the questions addressed here would be: How to coordinate e-government stakeholders’ engagement and changes in the public sector on a national, regional and international level? GOVERNMENT-BUSINESSES-CITIZENS (GBC) MODEL Looking at the main stakeholder involved in e-government national policies there are three very important groups: the government, businesses and citizens. A simple interaction framework of these three actors is given in the figure below as the GBC (GovernmentBusinesses-Citizens) model.