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International Conference on e-Government

TCGOV 2005: E-Government: Towards Electronic Democracy pp 70–80Cite as

Third Way e-Government: The Case for Local Devolution

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 3416))

Abstract

Governments often embrace the Web as a means of delivering joined-up, citizen-centric services efficiently and cost-effectively. In the UK, despite significant investment both provision and usage of e-services have fallen short of target. In this article the current status of UK e-government is analysed in relation to ‘New Labour’ Third Way governance. It is concluded that the inherent contradictions of Third Way ideology and the government’s favoured command and control style are hindering the development of egovernment. It is proposed that greater devolution to local councils may accelerate the provision of participatory, partnership-based e-services. If this is to be successful however, central government must move beyond the popularly prescribed model of transaction-based, bilateral e-services and reconceptualise e-government as an instrument of devolved, communitarian governance.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, University of Surrey, UK

    Ailsa Kolsaker

Authors
  1. Ailsa Kolsaker
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Dominikanerplatz-3, I-39100, Bozen, Italy

    Michael Böhlen

  2. Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy

    Johann Gamper

  3. Institute of Statistics and Economics, University of Basel, Petersplatz 1, 4003, Basel, Switzerland

    Wolfgang Polasek

  4. Institute for IS Research, University of Koblenz-Landau, Universitätsstr. 1, 56070, Koblenz, Germany

    Maria A. Wimmer

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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kolsaker, A. (2005). Third Way e-Government: The Case for Local Devolution. In: Böhlen, M., Gamper, J., Polasek, W., Wimmer, M.A. (eds) E-Government: Towards Electronic Democracy. TCGOV 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3416. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32257-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32257-3_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25016-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32257-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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