Small Communities and the Limits of E-Government Engagement: A Northeast Ohio Case Study

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Author(s): John A. Hoornbeek (Kent State University, USA), Kent Sowards (Kent State University, USA)and Brian Kelley (Kent State University, USA)
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 20
Source title: Digital Democracy: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Information Resources Management Association (USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-1740-7.ch082

Keywords: Electronic Government / Government & Law / Information Science Reference

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Abstract

Existing research suggests that progress toward a “virtual state” is inconsistent – at least at the local level of government. Coursey and Norris (2008) argue that few governments have moved beyond an informational presence on the internet and Cassell and Hoornbeek (2010) suggest that populist engagements (Kakabadse et al., 2003) between citizens and local governments remain the exception rather than the rule. This chapter examines two questions regarding e-government engagement among small communities in northeast Ohio. First, it assesses the extent to which small communities in northeast Ohio use websites to engage their citizens. And second, it analyzes factors that lead these governments to create websites and develop them to enable citizen engagement. We find that limited capacities and uncertain demand both limit small community website operations. We also suggest that these findings can help us understand constraints to E-government transformations and perhaps also the inconsistent nature of e-government citizen engagements.

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Small Communities and the Limits of E-Government Engagement: A Northeast Ohio Case Study

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