ELECTRONIC GOVERNMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: AN ASSESSMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT WEB SITES IN TURKEY

Abstract

Electronic government (e-government) has been transforming the relationship which governments have traditionally had with the citizens and render governments’ services and information to be more efficient, accountable, effective and accessible. Web sites are the key tools of e-government and the right channel for communication and service provision. Web platforms provide governments to improve their efficiency and effectiveness, strengthen democracy and public trust. This is much more important at local levels as the most basic public services are provided in the cities and citizens are most connected to government. As web content and use continues to increase, local governments monitor regularly and enhance the quality of their sites to attract and satisfy users. This study tries to evaluate the e-government development and early practices in Turkey through greater municipalities. The research analyzes the official web sites of sixteen greater municipalities in Turkey and evaluates them in terms of main e-government categories. The categories determined for this research according to the literature are; services provided, information available, security, government transparency/openness, and citizen outreach/interactivity. It is important to see the results to assess and discuss the current condition of local e-government implications in Turkey by means of government transparency, information flow and citizen participation.

Keywords

• e-government, greater municipal web sites,citizen interaction, government transparency

Kaynakça

1. Arslan, A. (2007), “Turkish Local e-Governments: a Longitudinal Study” The Electronic Journal of e-Government Volume 5 Issue 2, pp 95 - 106, available online at www.ejeg.com [Accessed 11.2009]
2. Bwalya, J.K.; Plessis, T.D.; Rensleigh, C. (2012), “A Snapshot Overwiew of the Digital Divide: e
3. Inclusion and e-Government in the Zambian Context”, Digital Democracy: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, Management Association, Information Resources (Ed)., USA. CIME -OECD Committee on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises (2003),
4. Public Sector Transparency and the International, Paris: OECD Publications. Coleman S., Gotze J., (2002), Bowling Together: Online Public Engagement in Policy
5. Deliberation, London: Hansard Society. Çayhan, B.E. (2008), “Implementing E-Government in Turkey: A Comparison of Online Public
6. Service Delivery in Turkey and the European Union”, The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, EJISDC (2008) 35, 8, 1-11http://www.ejisdc.org. [02.12.2009].
7. EIU – Economist Intelligence Unit (2009), The Report of E-Readiness Rankings 2009-The Usage
8. Imperative http://graphics.eiu.com/pdf/E-readiness%20rankings.pdf [Accessed 08.12.2009]

9. European Commission Capgemini (2007) The User Challenge Benchmarking The Supply Of
10. Online Public Services 7th Measurement, European Commission Directorate General for Information Society and Media Online Availability of Public Services http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/i2010/docs/benchmarking/egov_benchmark_2007 pdf [Accessed 18.12.2009].
11. Hillwatch (2006) White Paper: Hillwatch E-Impact Benchmark and Visitor Pattern Analytics
12. Alignment With Government Web Asset Performance Measurement, http://www.hillwatch.com/files/Hillwatch_Images/PDF/Hillwatch_white_paper_on_web_asset_pe rformance.pdf [02.12.2009].
13. Gartner Group. (2000, May 23), Key issues in e-government strategy and management, Research notes, Key İssues.
14. Ho, A.T.K (2002), “Reinventing Local Governments and the E-Government Initiative”, Public
15. Administration Review, 62(4): pp.434-444, Version of Record Online http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/0033-3352.00197/pdf Accessed 12.11.2009]
16. Holden, S.H., Norris, D.F., & Fletcher, P.D. (2003), “Electronic government at the local level:
17. Progress to date and future issues”, Public Performance & Management Review, 26(4) pp. 325- Holzer, M.& Seang-T. K. (2007), “ Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide: A
18. Longitudinal Assessment of Municipal Websites Throughout the World” http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/aspa/unpan031374.pdf [Accessed 11.2009].
19. InternetWorldStats (2009), OECD Countries Internet Usage and Population Statistics, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats16.htm [Accessed 29.12.2009]
20. Kaylor,C., Deshazo, R., Van Eck, D. (2001), “Gauging e-government: A report on implementing services among American cities”. Government Information Quarterly, 18(4), pp.293-307.
21. Kumar, R., & Best, M. L. (2006), “Impact and Sustainability of E-Government Services in
22. Developing Countries: Lessons Learned from Tamil Nadu, India”. The Information Society,22(1), 12. Kunstelj & Dečman, 2003, “Current State of e-Government in Slovenian Municipalities”, www.ejeg.com/issue/download.html?idArticle=50 [Accessed 02.12.2009].
23. Means, Grady; Schneider, David (2000), MetaCapitalism: The e-Business Revolution and the Design of 21st-Century Companies and Markets (1st Edition), John Wiley & Sons.
24. OECD (2008), OECD Report 2008-OECD e-government studies: Belgium www.oecd.org/dataoecd/53/31/42350611.pdf [Accessed 02.12.2009].
25. SPO (2003), e-Europe Broadband Strategies Questionnaire, http://www.bilgitoplumu.gov.tr/Documents/1/Yayinlar/031000_E
26. Europe2005BroadbandStrategiesQuestionnaireTurkey.pdf [Accessed 30.11.2009]
27. TUİK. (2006). Girisimlerde Bilisim Teknolojileri Kullanımı Arastırması (No. 93): Türkiye
28. İstatistik Kurumu; Ankara. UN -United Nations (2008), United Nations e-Government Survey - “From eGovernment to
29. Connected Governance” http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/UN/UNPAN028607.pdf [Accessed 12.2009]
30. West, D. M. (2007a), Digital Government: Technology and Public Sector Performance. Princeton:
31. NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press. West, D.M. (2007b), Global E-Government, August 2007. http://publications.ksu.edu.sa/IT%20Papers/eGov/egovt07int.pdf. [Accessed 30.03.2008]. WorldBank (2009), http://web.worldbank.org/wbsıte/external/topıcs/extınformatıonandcommunıcatıonandtechnologıes
32. /extegovernment/0,,menupk:702592~pagepk:149018~pipk:149093~thesitepk:702586,00.html
33. YerelNET Portalı (2009) Yerel Yönetimler Listesi , http://www.yerelnet.org.tr/iller/ [Accessed 11.2009]