The Transformative Impact of E-Government on Public Governance in New Zealand

Abstract This article examines the general proposition that to date public sector transformation facilitated by e-government initiatives is limited to change that is instrumental in outcome, rather than systemic. That is, public officials increasingly have the capability to provide digital channels for existing processes and systems, the implementation of which can have an entirely ‘new’ look and feel. This creates the illusion of a new approach by government to service delivery and governance. On closer examination however, it is evident that the political, legal and constitutional structures and relationships of executive government remain unchanged. The transformation formula in currency, therefore, is one of ‘doing things differently’ rather than ‘doing different things’. The author uses the general proposition above to explore empirically three e-government case studies in the context of the New Zealand public management system.

[1]  F. Thompson.  The Three Faces of Public Management , 2007 .

[2]  Patrick Dunleavy,et al.  Digital Era Governance: IT Corporations, the State, and e-Government , 2007 .

[3]  Patrick Dunleavy,et al.  Digital Era Governance , 2006 .

[4]  Donald F. Norris,et al.  The Scholarly Literature on E-Government: Characterizing a Nascent Field , 2006, Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res..

[5]  L. Lynn.  Public Management: Old and New , 2006 .

[6]  Helle Zinner Henriksen,et al.  The First Leg of E-Government Research: Domains and Application Areas 1998-2003 , 2005, Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res..

[7]  Åke Grönlund,et al.  State of the Art in E-Gov Research: Surveying Conference Publications , 2005, Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res..

[8]  W. Eggers.  Government 2.0: Using Technology to Improve Education, Cut Red Tape, Reduce Gridlock, and Enhance Democracy , 2004 .

[9]  Stewart Clegg,et al.  Political Hybrids: Tocquevillean Views on Project Organizations , 2004 .

[10]  Richard Norman.  Obedient Servants?: Management Freedoms and Accountabilities in the New Zealand Public Sector , 2004 .

[11]  C. Hood,et al.  The Art of the State: Culture, Rhetoric, and Public Management , 1998 .

[12]  Pat Walsh,et al.  Public Management: The New Zealand Model , 1996 .

[13]  Christine Bellamy,et al.  Introduction: Exploiting IT in Public Administration: Towards the Information Polity? , 1994 .

[14]  D. Ashford.  History and Context in Comparative Public Policy , 1992 .

[15]  R. O'Neill,et al.  E-Government: Transformation of Public Governance in New Zealand? , 2009 .

[16]  Robin Gauld,et al.  Dangerous Enthusiasms: E-government, Computer Failure and Information System Development , 2006 .

[17]  B. McSweeney.  Are we living in a post‐bureaucratic epoch? , 2006 .

[18]  H. Höpfl,et al.  Post‐bureaucracy and Weber's “modern” bureaucrat , 2006 .

[19]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  Information Technology and Administrative Reform: Will E-Government Be Different? , 2006, Int. J. Electron. Gov. Res..

[20]  Allen G. Schick,et al.  Reflections on the New Zealand Model , 2002 .

[21]  J. Fountain.  Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change , 2001 .

[22]  G. Scott,et al.  Public Sector Management in New Zealand : Lessons and Challenges , 2001 .

[23]  I.Th.M. Snellen,et al.  Public administration in an information age : a handbook , 1998 .

[24]  M. Patton.  Qualitative research and evaluation methods , 1980 .