Electronic governance (e-governance) in the United States describes the systems by which

information and communication technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...

are used to allow citizens, businesses and other government agencies to access state and

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

government services A public service is any service intended to address specific needs pertaining to the aggregate members of a community. Public services are available to people within a government jurisdiction as provided directly through public sector agencies ...

online. Since the increased use of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

in the 1990s, people in the United States can now access many government programs online, including

electronic voting Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone ''electronic voting machines'' ( ...

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

and

tax returns A tax return is the completion of documentation that calculates an entity or individual's income earned and the amount of taxes to be paid to the government or government organizations or, potentially, back to the taxpayer. Taxation is one of ...

. They can also access governmental data that were not previously available.

Three models of interaction in e-government

According to Andrew Chadwick and Christopher May, in their article ''Interaction between States and Citizens in the Age of the Internet: “e-Government” in the United States, Britain, and the European Union'', there are three major models of interaction associated with e-government, the managerial, the consultative and the participatory. * The managerial model stresses a vertical flow of information from the government to its citizens. This model is concerned with

efficiency Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without ...

, especially with the increase in speed when delivering information and services, as well as a reduction of the costs. This model establishes a client type relationship between the government and its citizens. * The consultative model also stresses vertical information flow but is more concerned with responding to needs of societal interest as expressed electronically by the citizens. This includes online elections, and other input from voters and requires an enormous amount of citizen involvement. * The participatory model is the most

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

of the three major models of involvement between government and citizens. Unlike the other two, the participatory model strives for horizontal and multi directional flow of information that creates a cyber society that can be more effective for the general public. This model becomes relevant when universal access and widespread usage of the technology have become part of the norm in terms of government-citizen interaction. Although at any given time these models of interaction can stand alone as the ideal form of involvement between the parties, often they overlap and provide multiple forms of interaction. These three models show potential ways for citizen and government interaction, there are advantages and disadvantages to the implementation of e-government and how it can affect people involved in the

political process Political opportunity theory, also known as the political process theory or political opportunity structure, is an approach of social movements that is heavily influenced by political sociology. It argues that success or failure of social movements ...

in the United States.

Citizen involvement

Understanding the involvement and interaction between government and its citizens through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is crucial when discussing e-governance in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Holden defines e-government as “the delivery of government services and information electronically 24 hours per day, seven days per week.” There are many benefits associated with e-governance in the United States and the involvement of citizens in the process. Due to e-governance, relevant information is more readily available to the public, while governmental programs become less expensive and more efficient. This allows most citizens to become part of the political process without leaving the comfort of their home. This increases the number of people willing to be involved in

democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

and voice their opinions due to the instant access to the government. Another benefit in citizen involvement in e-government is building trust between the citizens and the state. Over the past decades there has been a decline in citizens overall trust in the government. With such easy access to information, government programs and officials, e-government provides the perfect platform to start building the trust between these two parties. There are also a few potential issues with citizen involvement associated with e-government. Citizen involvement stems from problems with the actual technology used for e-governance and the potential that it will not always function as it is supposed to. A good example of this was the problems with the

healthcare.gov HealthCare.gov is a health insurance exchange website operated by the United States federal government under the Provisions of the Affordable Care Act, provisions of the Affordable Care Act or ACA, commonly referred to as “Obamacare”, which c ...

website that was established to help citizens with healthcare information and enrollment during the Obama Administration. Since the technology initially did not consistently work, this limited the initial effectiveness of the program and ultimately made it more difficult instead of more efficient. The website has since been modified in the attempt to continue providing this healthcare e-governance service.

Information dispersal and public engagement

Information dispersal and

public engagement Public engagement or public participation is a term that has recently been used to describe "the practice of involving members of the public in the agenda-setting, decision-making, and policy-forming activities of organizations/institutions respons ...

are key to the success of e-governance. However, the process of successfully engaging the public is quite complex. Due to the wide range of Internet advancements in recent years, the coordination of public engagement is difficult. Yet, the common desire to stay informed and find accessible methods to govern remains crucial.

Prospective future of e-governance

The focus of technological implementation during each generation has faced a new and difficult sets of challenges. Previously, size and cost and function caused there to be a small focused use of computers. As computers became

cost efficient Cost efficiency (or cost optimality), in the context of parallel computer algorithms, refers to a measure of how effectively parallel computing can be used to solve a particular problem. A parallel algorithm is considered cost efficient if its asy ...

and versatile there was difficulty dealing with the management of the new technology. Increasingly,

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and security are becoming important issues. Since technology permeates our society and all of our lives are within the digital spectrum a whole new dimension of vulnerabilities is now needing to be addressed. Currently, the focus majority of the government application has been the increase in efficiency and

information and communication technologies Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers, ...

. In the future, this trend will continue. Recently, increased emphasis has been placed in democratic engagement. As new technology is developed new rules and policies have to be crafted, and old policies adapted, each time adding another layer of complexity to integration and potentially mitigating benefits from embracing new technology. Many government agencies have struggled to adjust to the adoption of

digital data Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of discrete symbols each of which can take on one of only a finite number of values from some alphabet, such as letters or digits. An example i ...

. Other agencies struggle to control the flow of information such as security and police organizations not sharing information, and the controversial gathering of too much information. If e-governance in the United States is to advance the demand more sophisticated technological solutions for

encryption In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...

information sharing Information exchange or information sharing means that people or other entities pass information from one to another. This could be done electronically or through certain systems. These are terms that can either refer to bidirectional ''informa ...

, and interactive communication will need to be addressed.

References

Sources

* Public Governance of Healthcare in the United States: A Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) Analysis of the 2010 Reform * * Subjects: Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design ; National Government Expenditures and Health ; State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health * * * * {{cite web, url=http://www.infoworld.com/t/e-government/ailing-obamacare-site-get-tech-surge-229126?page=0,0, title=Ailing Obamacare site to get a 'tech surge' | E government - InfoWorld, date=21 October 2013 , publisher=infoworld.com, accessdate=2014-01-31 E-government in the United States Politics of the United States by issue