Interactive Communication as an Essential Precondition for the Development of Citizen Centered E-Government

Abstract

Purpose: The development of e-government raises the question how to provide e-services oriented to the personal needs of individuals and collective interests in a civil society. In this sense, the various forms of e-democracy are becoming the tool of direct communication between consumers and suppliers of public services.

The purpose of the article is to determine the value of various forms of electronic communication between citizens and civil society with public authorities as a general prerequisite for the development of citizen-centered e-government.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The methodology of this paper is represented by a set of general scientific and private scientific methods (logical, dialectical techniques and methods of scientific knowledge, comparative legal and legal technical analysis of texts of laws and other documents, analysis of Internet sources, as well as domestic and foreign literature dedicated to the study of various forms of electronic communication between citizens and state institutions as an effective channel to bring information to the government).

Findings: Information exchange is becoming an increasingly important condition for achieving a balance of interests between individual citizens, society and the state which becomes the only and uncontested subject of the e-government policy implementation. A study of the issue suggests that the Russian government does not pay enough attention to possible ways to optimize state regulation through the effective use of various forms of e-democracy. The historically confirmed importance of a democratic political regime in the context of the development of information and telecommunication technologies receives an additional backlog for the development, which, however, is complicated by the fragmentation of state policy in this area, a formal approach demonstrated by the authorities, instability, imperfection of legislation and law enforcement practice. The most developed forms of e-democracy in modern Russia are at the same time the simplest types of communication (information provision, public consultations) have a very narrow, specific character of their application and are not obligatory for the government, and therefore, they are not able to have a significant impact on changes in state and municipal policies at the federal, regional and local levels, respectively.

Originality/Value: In modern Russia the institution of e-democracy is used insufficiently and its role for the development of citizen-centered e-government is underestimated. Digitalization of public administration often takes place autonomously, in isolation from channels of direct communication with communities, which entails a reduction in the general pace of development and the coverage of the population using e-services. As a result, despite legal, organizational and technical foundations laid down, there is a huge underutilized reserve in this area related to the implementation of democratic institutions through various e-services. According to the authors of the publication, the solution to this problem is seen in the formation of a holistic and systemic vision of all forms of information communication of citizens, society and the state.