Evaluating Websites Services with a Political-Economic Approach

Some websites are currently listing huge information overloads, with various features of information categories and user services. E-Government websites in developing countries are a type of the complex websites mentioned above. One of the challenges in delivering e-Government services is to design the Web sites to make it easier for citizens to find desired information to maximize service quality, enhancing economy and cost efficiency, and improving citizens’ participations in a democracy system. However, little work is found to evaluate e-government services in this sense. In addition, some e-Governments are currently struggling with huge information overloads, with new and emerging ICT capabilities, but few of them answer how to develop e-Government websites is better than others to facilitate citizens’ information seeking in enhancing economy and cost efficiency, and improving citizens’ participations in democracy. This paper aims to identify problems with the information quality and levels of the e-Government website. The paper discusses the development of e-Government in Indonesia as a case study to evaluate information quality of the e-Government in general. Finally, the paper conceptualizes a political economy framework for evaluating the development and progress level of the e-government in Indonesia with integrating socio-economic approaches for study of Indonesia’s situation in maximizing service quality and enhancing economy and cost efficiency, and improving citizens in the democracy systems processes.