E-government and citizen's engagement with local affairs through e-websites: The case of Spanish municipalities

Highlights? Spanish municipalities have embarked upon a wave of e-government initiatives that make use of ICT. ? With ICT being introduced in organisations, managers could build on an existing culture of awareness of and sensitivity to information and technologies in order to positively contribute to e-government success and use. ? The more a local government aligns technology applications with meeting citizen needs, the more benefits (including cost reduction or even profit) e-government projects can deliver. ? It is possible that public administrators are under-investing in (or underestimate) approaches and technologies to improve civic engagement. As a mixture of new technologies, processes and services oriented to the citizen, e-government has become one of the most important keywords for the public sector reform with proponents claiming that it guarantees transparency, accountability and better communication between local and national administrations and their public. Few if any studies have investigated the factors that might contribute to the establishment of trusting relationship between city councils and citizens. This paper examines the relative importance and significance of three types of information communication technologies (ICTs) towards the use of e-government and the development of civic engagement. We conduct an empirical investigation of 179 Spanish official town websites (web sites in the municipalities). The research findings suggest that implementing ICT not only involves a step towards an increase in the use of e-government services by people, but also provides numerous opportunities for their civic engagement. The main conclusion of this study is that although ICT can leverage the adoption of e-government, it cannot create alone engagement with traditional activities of the local government. What is missing from this relationship is a mediating variable (adoption of e-government by government officers), which in turn can greatly help to better understand how ICT impacts relationships between governments and their citizens.

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