M.

Jae Moon
Texas A&M University

The Evolution of E-Government among

Municipalities: Rhetoric or Reality?

Information technology has become one of the core elements of managerial reform, and electronic
government (e-government) may figure prominently in future governance. This study is designed
to examine the rhetoric and reality of e-government at the municipal level. Using data obtained
from the 2000 E-government Survey conducted by International City/County Management Asso-
ciation and Public Technologies Inc., the article examines the current state of municipal e-govern-
ment implementation and assesses its perceptual effectiveness. This study also explores two institu-
tional factors (size and type of government) that contribute to the adoption of e-government among
municipalities. Overall, this study concludes that e-government has been adopted by many mu-
nicipal governments, but it is still at an early stage and has not obtained many of expected out-
comes (cost savings, downsizing, etc.) that the rhetoric of e-government has promised. The study
suggests there are some widely shared barriers (lack of financial, technical, and personnel capaci-
ties) and legal issues (such as privacy) to the progress of municipal e-government. This study also
indicates that city size and manager-council government are positively associated with the adop-
tion of a municipal Web site as well as the longevity of the Web site.

Introduction
Information technology (IT) has become one of the On June 24, 2000, President Clinton delivered his first
core elements of managerial reform, and electronic gov- Webcasted address to the public and announced a series of
ernment (e-government) may figure prominently in fu- new e-government initiatives. One highlight of these new
ture governance. IT has opened up many possibilities for initiatives was to establish an integrated online service sys-
improving internal managerial efficiency and the quality tem that put all online resources offered by the federal
of public service delivery to citizens. IT has contributed government on a single Web site, www.firstgov.gov. The
to dramatic changes in politics (Nye 1999; Norris 1999), initiative also attempted to build one-stop access to roughly
government institutions (Fountain 2001), performance $500 billion in grants ($300 billion) and procurement ($200
management (Brown 1999), red tape reduction (Moon and billion) opportunities (White House Press Office 2000).
Bretschneider 2002), and re-engineering (Anderson 1999) Following the federal initiative, many local governments
during the last decade. The Clinton administration at- also adopted IT for local governance. For instance, they
tempted to advance e-government, through which gov- have created or improved their Web sites and provide Web-
ernment overcomes the barriers of time and distance in based services to promote better internal procedural man-
providing public services (Gore 1993). Recently, some agement and external service provision.
studies have found widespread diffusion of various IT
innovations (mainframe and PC computers, geographi- M. Jae Moon is an assistant professor in the George Bush School of Govern-
ment and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Previously he was a fac-
cal systems, networks, Web pages, etc.) in the public sec- ulty member at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at University of Colo-
tor (Cats-Baril and Thompson 1995; Ventura 1995; rado at Denver. His teaching and research interests include public manage-
ment, information technology, and comparative administration. His works
Nedovic´-Budic´ and Godschalk 1996; Norris and Kraemer have appeared in various journals in public administration and policy, in-
1996; Weare, Musso, and Hale 1999; Musso, Weare, and cluding Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Re-
search and Theory, Administration and Society, Technological Forecasting
Hale 2000; Landsbergen and Wolken 2001; Layne and and Social Change, and Public Performance and Management Review. Email:
Lee 2001; Nunn 2001; Peled 2001). jmoon@bushschool.tamu.edu.

424 Public Administration Review • July/August 2002, Vol. 62, No. 4

 Despite this continuing move toward e-government, the (2001) suggests the concept of the “virtual state,” that is, a
development, implementation, and effectiveness of e-gov- governmental entity organized with “virtual agencies,
ernment at the local level are not well understood.1 This cross-agency and public-private networks whose structure
article is designed to conduct an empirical study of how and capacity depend on the Internet and web” (4).
the e-government initiative has been introduced and imple- Largely speaking, e-government includes four major
mented effectively at the municipal level. The study will internal and external aspects: (1) the establishment of a
explore a basic conceptual framework for the evolution of secure government intranet and central database for more
e-government and will examine the effectiveness of e-gov- efficient and cooperative interaction among governmental
ernment in municipal governments based on comprehen- agencies; (2) Web-based service delivery; (3) the applica-
sive survey data obtained from the 2000 Electronic Gov- tion of e-commerce for more efficient government trans-
ernment Survey that was conducted by International City/ action activities, such as procurement and contract; and
County Management Association and Public Technology (4) digital democracy for more transparent accountability
Inc. It will also discuss two primary institutional factors of government (Government and the Internet Survey 2000).
(size and type of government) that contribute to the devel- Various technologies have been applied to support these
opment of e-government at the local level. unique characteristics of e-government, including elec-
tronic data interchange, interactive voice response, voice
mail, email, Web service delivery, virtual reality, and pub-
E-Government: Theory and Practice lic key infrastructure. For instance, by introducing elec-
E-government is one of most interesting concepts in- tronic filing systems with custom-designed software that
troduced in the field of public administration in the late incorporates encryption technology, the U.S. Patent and
1990s, though it has not been clearly defined and under- Trademark Office has made a bold move toward substan-
stood among scholars and practitioners of public adminis- tially reducing the amount of paper it handles by allowing
tration. Like many managerial concepts and practices in inventors or their agents to send documents over the Internet
public administration (TQM, strategic management, par- (Daukantas 2000). As a result of various Web technolo-
ticipative management, etc.), the idea of e-government fol- gies, 40 million U.S. taxpayers were able to file their 2000
lowed private-sector adoption of so-called e-business and returns over the Web, while 670,000 online applications
e-commerce. The Global Study of E-government, a recent were made for student loans using the Web-based system
joint research initiative for global e-government by the of the Department of Education (Preston 2000). Some gov-
United Nations and the American Society for Public Ad- ernments also have promoted virtual democracy by pursu-
ministration, provides a broad definition of e-government: ing Web-based political participation like online voting and
Broadly defined, e-government includes the use of online public forums.
all information and communication technologies, The functionality and utility of Web technologies in
from fax machines to wireless palm pilots, to facili- public management can be broadly divided into two cat-
tate the daily administration of government. How- egories: internal and external. Internally, the Web and
ever, like e-commerce, the popular interpretation of other technologies hold promise potential as effective
e-government is one that defines it exclusively as an
and efficient managerial tools that collect, store, orga-
Internet driven activity … to which it may be added
“that improves citizen access to government infor-
nize, and manage an enormous volume of data and in-
mation, services and expertise to ensure citizen par- formation. By using the function of upload and down-
ticipation in, and satisfaction with the government load, the most up-to-date information and data can be
process … it is a permanent commitment by gov- displayed on the Internet on a real-time basis. Govern-
ernment to improving the relationship between the ment also can transfer funds electronically to other gov-
private citizen and the public sector through en- ernmental agencies or provide information to public
hanced, cost-effective and efficient delivery of ser- employees through an intranet or Internet system. Gov-
vices, information and knowledge. It is the practical ernment also can do many mundane and routine tasks
realization of the best that government has to offer. more easily and quickly, such as responding to employ-
(UN and ASPA 2001, 1) ees’ requests for benefits statements.
Similarly, e-government is narrowly defined as the pro- Externally, Web technologies also facilitate
duction and delivery of government services through IT government’s linkages with citizens (for both services and
applications; however, it can be defined more broadly as political activities), other governmental units, and busi-
any way IT is used to simplify and improve transactions nesses. Government Web sites can serve as both a commu-
between governments and other actors, such as constitu- nication and a public relations tool for the general public.
ents, businesses, and other governmental agencies Information and data can easily be shared with and trans-
(Sprecher 2000, 21). In her recent book, Jane Fountain ferred to external stakeholders (businesses, nonprofit or-

The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities 425

 Table 1 Electronic Government Framework with Examples
Stages of E-government
Administrative functions Political functions
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Types of government Information: Two-way Service and financial Vertical and Political participation
dissemination/ communication transaction horizontal integration
catalogue
Internal Government to Agency filing Requests from local Electronic funds N/A
government requirements governments transfers
Government to Pay dates, holiday Requests for Electronic paychecks One-stop job, grade, N/A
public employees information employment benefit vacation time,
statements retirement
information, etc.
External Government to Description of Request and receive Pay taxes online All services and N/A
individual– medical benefits individual benefit entitlements
services information
Government to Dates of elections Receive election forms Receive election funds Register and vote: Voting online
individual–political and disbursements federal, state, and
local (file)
Government to Regulations online SEC filings Pay taxes online, All regulatory Filing comments
business–citizen receive program information on one online
funds (SB, etc.), site
agricultural allotments
Government to Posting request for Request clarification Online vouchers and Marketplace for N/A
business–market- proposals or specs payments vendors
place
Technologies Basic Web technol- Electronic data Electronic data Integration of the Public key infrastruc-
used ogy, bulletin boards interchange, email interchange, technologies required ture, more sophisti-
electronic filing for phase 1, 2, and cated interface and
system, digital 3. interoperable
signature, technologies,
interoperable chatrooms
technology, public
key infrastructure
Adopted from Hiller and Bélanger (2001).

ganizations, interest groups, or the public). In addition, tions by completely replacing public servants with “web-
some Web technologies (such as interactive bulletin boards) based self-services” (Hiller and Bélanger 2001). This “trans-
enable the government to promote public participation in action-based e-government” can be partially achieved by
policy-making processes by posting public notices and ex- “putting live database links to on-line interfaces” (Layne
changing messages and ideas with the public. and Lee 2001, 125). Through this online service and finan-
As table 1 summarizes, there are various stages of e-gov- cial transaction, for example, constituents can renew licenses,
ernment, which reflect the degree of technical sophistica- pay fines, and apply for financial aid (Hiller and Bélanger
tion and interaction with users: (1) simple information dis- 2001; Layne and Lee 2001).
semination (one-way communication); (2) two-way In Stage 4, the government attempts to integrate vari-
communication (request and response); (3) service and fi- ous government services vertically (intergovernmental in-
nancial transactions; (4) integration (horizontal and vertical tegration) and horizontally (intragovernmental integration)
integration); and (5) political participation.2 Stage 1 is the for the enhancement of efficiency, user friendliness, and
most basic form of e-government and uses IT for dissemi- effectiveness. This stage is a highly challenging task for
nating information, simply by posting information or data governments because it requires a tremendous amount of
on the Web sites for constituents to view. Stage 2 is two- time and resources to integrate online and back-office sys-
way communication characterized as an interactive mode tems (Hiller and Bélanger 2001). Hiller and Bélanger
between government and constituents. In this stage, the gov- (2001) suggest three good examples: Australia’s state of
ernment incorporates email systems as well as information Victoria (http://www.maxi.com.au),3 Singapore’s e-Citizen
and data-transfer technologies into its Web sites. A good Center (http://www.ecitizen.gov.sg), 4 and the U.S.
example is the Social Security Administration’s Web site, government’s portal site (http://www.firstgov.gov). Both
where the agency receives new Medicare card applications vertical and horizontal integrations push information and
and benefit statement requests, then processes and responds data sharing among different functional units and levels of
to service requests (Hiller and Bélanger 2001). In stage 3, governments for better online public services (Layne and
the government allows online service and financial transac- Lee 2001). Stage 5 involves the promotion of Web-based

426 Public Administration Review • July/August 2002, Vol. 62, No. 4

political participation, in which government Web sites in- Table 3 Response Rate by Geographic Region
clude online voting, online public forums, and online opin- Population Number of Number of Response rate
ion surveys for more direct and wider interaction with the cities surveyed cities responded (percent)
public. While the previous four stages are related to Web- Northeast 805 286 35.5
based public services in the administrative arena, the fifth North-central 815 419 51.4
stage highlights Web-based political activities by citizens. South 737 405 55.0
West 542 361 66.6
It should be noted that the five stages are just a concep-
tual tool to examine the evolution of e-government. The Northeast, North-Central, South, and West regions. As table
adoption of e-government practices may not follow a true 3 shows, the sample somewhat over-represents the West
linear progression. Many studies of technological innova- and under-represents the Northeast.
tion also indicate the diffusion and adoption of technology
may even follow a curvilinear path (that is, Cancian Dip).5 Adoption of Web Sites and Intranet
For example, a government may initiate stage 5 of e-gov- The e-government survey shows that 85.3 percent
ernment (political participation) without full practice of (1,260) of responding municipal governments (1,471) have
stage 4 (integration). It is also possible that government their own Web sites, and 57.4 percent (766) of them have
can pursue various components of e-government simulta- an intranet. The adoption of municipal governments’ Web
neously. Like other stage models of growth (Nolan 1979; sites is a recent phenomenon. As table 4 indicates, only 46
Quinn and Cameron 1983),6 the framework simply pro- cities had constructed a Web site more than five years ago.
vides an exploratory conceptual tool that helps one under- More than half (633) of the responding cities with their
stand the evolutionary nature of e-government. own Web sites (938) constructed their Web sites within the
past three years. It should be noted that the evolution of e-
Implementation of Municipal E- government started in the mid-1990s, when the World Wide
Government: Adoption and Evolution of Web became more widely available after its standards were
finalized in 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium.8
E-Government at the Municipal Level
The following sections will examine the cur-
Table 4 Adoption of Web Site, Longevity, Intranet, and
rent state of the evolution of e-government at the
Comprehensive Strategic Plan1
municipal level by examining the data obtained
from the 2000 E-government Survey conducted Web sites Longevity of Web Intranet E-government
sites strategic plan
by the International City/County Management
No (209) No Web site (209) No (568) No (1,280)2
Association and Public Technology Inc. The sur- Yes (1,260) Less than 1 year (131) Yes (766) Plan (704)2
vey was designed to examine and assess local gov- 1–2 years (247)
ernment activities in the area of e-government 2–3 years (255) Yes (114)2
(Web site adoption, electronic delivery of commu- 3–4 years (153)
nity services, interactive service delivery, digital 4–5 years (106)
5–6 years (46)
divide, e-procurement, etc.). The survey was sent
Nonresponse (2) Nonresponse (324) Nonresponse (137) Nonresponse (77)2
to 2,899 municipal governments with populations Total (1,471) Total (1,471) Total (1,471) Total (1,471)2
over 10,000 identified by the ICMA municipal Figures in parentheses are the number of municipal governments.
1

government database.7 A total of 1,471 surveys Out of 1,280, 704 governments considered developing a formal e-government strategy or master
2

were received, a response rate of 51 percent. Table plan within the next year.
2 indicates the response rates by city population. Geo- The survey also suggests that only a small portion of
graphically, the responding municipalities represent the municipal governments makes a proactive and strategic
move toward e-government. For example, only 114 mu-
Table 2 Response Rate by City Population
nicipal governments out of 1,394 (8.2 percent) responding
Population Number of Number of Response rate municipal governments have a comprehensive e-govern-
cities surveyed cities responded (percent)
ment strategy or master plan to guide their future e-gov-
Over 1,000,000 10 6 60.0
500,000–1,000,000 17 4 23.5
ernment initiatives. This fact indicates that e-government
250,000–499,999 38 15 39.5 initiatives are often pursued and implemented without a
100,000–249,999 140 96 68.6 long-term strategic plan by many municipalities. Interest-
50,000–99,999 353 201 56.9 ingly, early adopters of a Web site are more likely to have
25,000–49,999 688 368 53.5
begun e-government initiatives and to have adopted spe-
10,000–24,999 1,653 781 47.2
Total 2,899 1,471 50.7
cific e-government strategy plans. For example, about 23

The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities 427

 Table 5 Practices, Effectiveness, and Barriers of Municipal E-Government
E-government in practice Barriers to e-government E-Government effectiveness
Stage 1: One-way communication/information Personnel capacity Cost saving
dissemination (Yes/No)1 • Lack of technology staff (837) • Reducing administrative costs (60)
• Web site: Information Posting: (1,260/209) Technical capacity Downsizing
Stage 2: Two-way communication (Yes/Plan) 2 • Lack of technical expertise (585) • Reducing of the number of staff (7)
• Registration for program/services: parks and • Lack of technical upgrade (431) Entrepreneurial activities
recreation facilities (97/541)
• Security issues (512) • Increasing non-tax-based revenue (6)
• Requests for government records (175/390)
Financial capacity • Paid advertising on the web (16)
• Requests for services: streetlight, potholes, etc.
(267/445) • Lack of financial resources (671) Changing work environment
Stage 3: Service and financial transaction Legal issues • Changing role of staff (257)
(Yes/Plan) 2 • Privacy issues (320) • Reducing time demands on staff (103)
• Property registration (10/264) • Increasing demands on staff (289)
• Business license application/renewal (46/524) • Reengineering business processes (220)
• Permit application or renewal (63/604) General efficiency
• Online payment of fines (21/475) • Making business processes more efficient
• Online payment of taxes (14/277) (171)
• Online payment of utility bills (29/513) Effective procurement (359)4
• Online payment of license/permit fees (22/612) • Increasing the number of bids (107)
• E-procurement: purchase (723/197) • Improving the quality of bids (47)
• E-procurement: online request for proposal (359/ • Cost saving (28)
956) 3
Stage 4: Integration5
• N/A
Stage 5: Political participation5
• N/A
1
It is assumed that the municipal governments that have their Web sites at least post some information on the Web for dissemination purpose.
2
The two figures in the parenthesis indicate the number of governments that currently offer the listed services and the number of governments that have a plan to offer in the
future.
3
The two figures in the parenthesis indicate 359 municipal governments currently post requests for bids or request for proposals on their Web sites and 957 municipalities do not.
4
359 municipal governments currently post requests for bids or requests for proposals on their Web sites.
5
The 2000 E-government Survey does not include relevant information regarding stages 4 and 5.

percent (10) of the municipal governments that have had nicipalities answered they plan to offer related services in
Web sites for over five years (81) have a specific e-govern- the future. For example, 97, 175, and 267 municipal gov-
ment strategic plan, whereas only about 6.5 percent (16) ernments answered that they offer online registration for
of those who have had their Web sites for one to two years programs (parks and recreation facilities), requests for
currently have a strategic plan for e-government. government records, and requests for services (streetlight
repairs, potholes, etc.), respectively.
Evolution of Municipal E-government Only 10 governments currently have online property
As discussed in the previous section, there are five stages registration and 46 and 63 municipalities offer online busi-
of e-government. Each stage is defined by the degree of ness license application/renewal services and online per-
technological sophistication, transparency, and interaction mit application/renewal services, respectively. Fewer mu-
with internal and external constituents (public employees, nicipalities have entered into the financial transaction part
other governments, citizens, businesses, and other social of stage 3 of e-government. Fewer than 30 municipalities
actors). The government can post information on the Web have Web-based payment systems for fines, taxes, utility
and simply facilitate one-way communication to the pub- bills, and permit fees. In contrast, e-procurement (both
lic as an information provider (stage 1), while stage 5 re- purchases and requests for proposals) appears to have been
quires highly sophisticated security, encryption, and inter- extensively adopted by municipal governments. Interest-
active technologies to support online political participation ingly, more than half (723) of the responding municipal
such as election and public forum. As summarized in table governments answered that they currently purchase prod-
5, many of the responding municipal governments appear ucts using the Internet. This may be because e-procure-
to be at either stage 1 or stage 2. In fact, a relatively small ment has been pushed continuously by private businesses,
portion of the municipal governments has moved to stage and governments have taken advantage of available tech-
2 (two-way communication), and fewer have entered stage nologies and existing e-commerce practices developed in
3 (service and financial transactions), though many mu- the private sector. It is also noteworthy that about 27 per-

428 Public Administration Review • July/August 2002, Vol. 62, No. 4

cent (359) answered they currently post requests for bids swered that they generated more non-tax-based revenues
or requests for proposals on their Web sites to make the through e-government, and 16 cities responded that they
contract and proposal processes easier for businesses. Over- allow paid advertisements on their Web sites. Among city
all, it suggests that few governments have taken proactive governments, 171 believe that e-government initiatives
approaches to Web-based services for incoming transac- have enhanced the overall efficiency of city management.
tions, but many have utilized available online e-commerce It is noteworthy that many respondents think that e-gov-
channels and outgoing transactions mainly initiated and ernment practices reduce time demands on staff but in-
developed by private businesses. It should be noted that crease task demands on staff. These survey results may
stage 4 (integration) and 5 (political participation) were indicate that many public administrators perceive that e-
not examined in this article because the survey did not cover government initiatives save time but often demand more
those two areas. Considering the fact that not many mu- technical expertise and skill to staff. It appears that mu-
nicipal governments have reached stage 3, it is assumed nicipal e-procurement practices have not been very ef-
that few municipalities have entered stage 4 or 5. fective. Only a few have experienced increased numbers
It seems that municipal e-government has not been in in bids/proposals (107), improvement of the quality of
full bloom. Many municipalities have not made a full com- bids/proposals (47), and average cost savings (28).
mitment to developing a comprehensive strategic e-gov- There has been extensive diffusion of Web technolo-
ernment plan to achieve a higher level of e-government. gies and Web-based services at the local level. The adop-
Considering that Web technologies became widespread in tion of e-government in the last several years is particu-
the mid-1990s, however, many municipal governments larly noteworthy. But the survey results indicate that many
initiated e-government relatively quickly. For the last three municipalities are still at an early stage of e-government.
years, in particular, the evolutionary process seems to have The speed at which municipalities are adopting high lev-
been very dramatic in terms of the number of municipali- els of e-government does not seem proportionate to the
ties that have adopted municipal Web sites, but less pro- emerging rhetoric of e-government.
gressive in the advancement to higher stages of e-govern-
ment such as service and financial transactions. Table 5
suggests an optimistic view of the future of municipal e- Municipal E-Government and Institutional
government practices, as many of the municipal govern- Characteristics
ments that do not provide Web-based public services an- As discussed earlier, e-government is not well defined
swered they have plans to implement those services in the and is still under much debate regarding its rhetoric and
near future. As summarized in the second column of table reality. Based on the current state of municipal e-govern-
5, some institutional and resource barriers to e-government ment, this section will examine some institutional factors
are also identified. In particular, municipal governments that contribute to the adoption of e-government practices
are perceived to face a lack of technology staff (837), lack at the local level. In this article, two primary factors will
of financial resources (671), lack of technology expertise be examined: city size and types of municipal government
(585), security issues (512), technological upgrades (431), (city mayor-council, city manager-council, etc.).
and privacy issues (320).
Size and E-Government Practices
Effectiveness of Municipal E-Government The relationship between organizational size and the
As the last column of table 5 indicates, top city ad- probability of adopting an innovation has been widely stud-
ministers were asked to respond to the changes and ben- ied (Musso, et. al., 2000; Weare, et. al. 1999; Moon and
efits (perceptual measure for effectiveness) that e-gov- Bretschneider 1997; Rogers 1995; Tornatzky and Fleischer
ernment has brought. The survey shows that only a few 1990; Kimberly 1976). Some of the previous literature on
municipal governments claim that e-government pro- technology diffusion and adoption has found that larger
grams have been effective in specific areas (cost savings, organizations tend to adopt new technologies and innova-
downsizing, etc.), while many of the responding munici- tions more frequently than their smaller counterparts.
pal governments agreed that e-government initiatives have Studying the diffusion of municipal Web pages in Califor-
brought overall efficiency and changes in the workplace. nia, Weare and his colleagues (1999) and Musso and her
For example, few cities have experienced administrative colleagues (2000) find that adopters are more likely to have
cost savings (60), procurement cost savings (28), or re- larger, more affluent, and more politically active popula-
ductions in the number of staff (7), while many cities have tion than nonadopters. Moon and deLeon (2001) also point
observed changing roles of staff (257) and changes in out that larger municipal governments may have more
business processes (220). Entrepreneurial outcomes seem stakeholders and be more sensitive than smaller municipal
to be very minimal: Only six municipal governments an- governments to the external pressures to make the govern-

The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities 429

ment more efficient. More importantly, larger municipal them more receptive to managerial reforms and innova-
governments may be more receptive to and more easily tions than mayor-council governments. 9 Moon and
afford new technological innovations than smaller govern- deLeon’s study (2001) of municipal reinvention concurs
ments; larger governments often have the advantage of that council-manager governments are more proactive in
greater administrative, technical, and financial resources introducing and implementing reinvention programs. As
than smaller governments in seeking alternative manage- summarized in table 7, the results of the 2000 E-govern-
rial innovations. ment Survey support this argument: The figures indicate
As shown in table 6, the positive relationship between that about 90 percent (945) of the responding council-man-
size and the adoption of e-government is supported by ager governments currently have Web sites (1,057), whereas
the 2000 E-government Survey data. For example, 98 only 77 percent (267) of the mayor-council governments
percent of cities with populations over 50,000 have their (346) have Web sites.
own Web sites, while about 79 percent of the municipali-
ties with populations of 10,000–24,999 have their own Table 7 E-government Implementation by Type of
Web sites. The longevity of municipal Web sites and adop- Municipal Government
tion of intranets appear to be positively associated with Council-manager Mayor-council
municipal size. Overall, table 6 suggests a casual obser- governments governments
vation that a positive association may exist between size Number of responded 1,057 346
and the level of e-government adoption, which indicates municipalities
Web sites 945 (90%) 267 (77%)
that larger municipal governments are more likely to be
Longevity of Web site 238 (30%) 61 (20%)
earlier adopters of e-government practices than smaller (more than three years)
municipalities. Intranet 581 (60%) 150 (49%)
Comprehensive 90 (8%) 22 (7%)
strategic plan
Types of Municipal Government and
E-Government Practices
The influence of a municipality’s type of government The council-manager municipal governments also tend
and its policy attitude has also been well examined (Svara to be early adopters of Web technologies. About 30 per-
1990, 1999). City managers, who are often professional cent (238) of responding council-manager governments had
chief administrators, may be more proactive in introduc- developed their city Web sites at least three years ago, where
ing technological innovations to the public sphere because just 20 percent (61) of responding mayor-council govern-
their professionalism tends to value innovativeness and ments have city Web sites that are more than three years
efficiency more than mayors, who are elected officials and old. Regarding the adoption of intranets, 60 percent (581)
thus tend to hold political values. As Svara (1990) points of the responding council-city manager governments (968)
out, this is partially because the cooperative nature of the currently have an intranet, while about 49 percent (150) of
internal process in council-manager governments makes mayor-council governments (307) are equipped with one.
Ninety municipalities (8 percent) with
Table 6 Municipal Size and E-Government1 council-manager governments currently
Population Adoption of Web Longevity of Adoption of Development have a comprehensive e-government stra-
site (percent) Web Site: Intranet of E-Govern- tegic plan, while 22 mayor-council gov-
longer than (percent) ment plan
three years (percent) ernments (7 percent) have developed an
(percent) overall e-government initiative. T-tests
Over 1,000,000 6/6 (100) 4/5 (80) 5/6 (83) 4/6 (67) were also conducted to see whether the
500,000–1,000,000 4/4 (100) 2/3 (67) 4/4 (100) 1/4 (25) mean differences between mayor-council
250,000–499,999 15/15 (100) 6/8 (75) 12/15 (80) 5/13 (39) government and council-manager govern-
100,000–249,999 94/96 (98) 40/74 (54) 73/92 (80) 14/95 (15) ments are statistically significant. The sta-
50,000–99,999 195/201 (97) 55/139 (40) 131/190 (69) 29/196 (15) tistical results indicate that mean differ-
25,000–49,999 334/368 (91) 79/275 (29) 200/335 (60) 28/352 (8)
10,000–24,999 612/779 (79) 119/643 (19) 341/692 (49) 33/728 (5)
ences in adoption of a Web site, its
Average 1,263/1,469 (86) 305/1,147(27) 766/1,334 (57) 114/1,394 (8) longevity, and adoption of an intranet be-
Total number of 1,469 1,147 1,334 1,394 tween the two types of municipalities are
responding cities2 all statistically significant at the 1 percent
1
Figures indicate the number of adopters, total number of responded municipal governments, and percentage,
respectively. Basically, the percentage refers to the proportion of municipal governments that have adopted each
level (p < 0.0001).10
aspect of e-government (Web site, three-year longevity, Internet, and e-government plan) by municipal size. The
percentage is rounded.
2
Numbers of responding municipal governments are different due to the difference in the number of missing
observations for each question.

430 Public Administration Review • July/August 2002, Vol. 62, No. 4

Conclusions and Future Studies Despite seemingly limited practices and effectiveness
This study examined an emerging issue of e-govern- of municipal e-government, the survey results also posit a
ment in municipal governments. The study surveyed the positive and optimistic future by suggesting that many
rhetoric and reality of municipal government by investi- nonadopters of Web-based public services plan to offer
gating the 2000 E-government Survey data collected by those services in the near future. In order to enhance the
International City/County Management Association and effectiveness of their e-government practices, many mu-
Public Technology Inc. The assessment was based on the nicipal governments will need to move toward a higher
framework of e-government developmental stages. This level of e-government development, which will require
study also evaluated the respondents’ perception of the more technical, personnel, and financial commitments. In
effectiveness of e-government initiatives in various func- particular, more continuing efforts should be made to ad-
tional areas. vance Web-based participatory and democratic local gov-
The survey results show that municipality size and type ernance. Municipal governments also need to establish
of government are significant institutional factors in the systematic and comprehensive e-government plans, in
implementation and development of e-government. As which they assess available resources and address related
expected, larger governments are likely to be more proac- legal issues like privacy and security as well (Fountain
tive and strategic in advancing e-government, and coun- 2001). In the future, city governments should further pro-
cil-manager governments seem to pursue e-government mote horizontal (interagency relations at the municipal
more actively than mayor-council governments. The study level) as well as vertical (intergovernmental relations with
also finds that the lack of technical, personnel, and finan- state and federal government) collaborations to advance
cial capacities are perceived to be major barriers to the e-government initiatives to stage 4 (integration) and stage
development of e-government in many municipalities. 5 (political participation). These stages require a higher
This study also suggests that many municipal govern- level of “interoperability” (Landsbergen and Wolken 2001)
ments are still in either stage 1 or stage 2 of e-government, and demand further information sharing and interactive
where they simply post and disseminate government in- operations among various stakeholders and governmental
formation over the Web or provide online channels for two- agencies to deliver more efficient and effective online pub-
way communication, particularly for public service re- lic services. They also demand more sophisticated tech-
quests. Overall, the current state of the e-government nological solutions for encryption, information sharing,
initiative is still very primitive in many municipal govern- and interactive communication. Equipped with sustain-
ments, though the adoption rate for Web sites among mu- able managerial support and resources, municipal govern-
nicipalities is very high. Only half of the responding gov- ments should be prepared for legal and political challenges
ernments currently utilize an intranet, and only 8 percent in order to accelerate the evolutionary process by which
of the responding governments have a comprehensive stra- e-government can become reality, not just rhetoric in the
tegic plan for an e-government initiative. The study also near future.
finds that e-government has not been as effective as its As municipal governments continue their e-government
rhetoric would suggest. Although many top city managers march, future studies need to examine the progress and
share the view that e-government has brought broadly de- effectiveness of municipal governments in delivering Web-
fined changes in procedural practices and task environ- based public services and facilitating citizens’ Web-based
ments, it seems that municipal e-government is still far political participation. As addressed in Fountain’s (2001)
from maturity and from contributing to cost savings, rev- recent work, it should be further examined how IT and
enue generating, and downsizing. It echoes the conclusion government institutions interplay through human actions
of Musso, Weare, and Hale (2000) that the study only leads and how actual e-government practices change the con-
to “mild encouragement at best regarding the potential of tent and functions of governmental institutions and their
Internet technologies to reinvigorate local governance” interactions with other governments, business, and citizens.
(16). In her recent book, Jane Fountain (2001) also gives a A comprehensive assessment of municipal e-government,
similar assessment of the current practice of virtual state: along with federal and state e-government, should be fol-
“The dot-coming of government is just beginning.… Agen- lowed in the future to address vertical/ horizontal integra-
cies are still in the process of putting basic information on tion, public participation, citizen access/digital divide,11 as
the web and institutionalizing secure methods and authen- well as other emerging regulatory and legal issues regard-
tication so that web-based payments become possible and ing e-government.
personal documents, such as social security benefit infor-
mation and tax files, can be transmitted safely over the
Internet” (201).

The Evolution of E-Government among Municipalities 431

 16. Nolan’s (1979) model of advanced data processing systems
Acknowledgments posits six stages of growth in companies, including initia-
Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2001 tion, contagion, control, integration, data administration, and
Annual ASPA Conference in Newark, New Jersey, and the 2001 maturity. The model has been widely applied for the adop-
Annual APSA Conference in San Francisco, California. For their tion and growth of various IT innovations. In their study of
constructive suggestions, the author would like to thank three organizational life cycle and effectiveness, Quinn and
anonymous reviewers as well as Jeff Brudney, Linda deLeon, Cameron (1983) posit four stages of organizational growth,
Chris Hinnant, and Michael McLeod. including the entrepreneurial stage, collectivity stage, for-
malization/control stage, and structural elaboration stage.
17. In addition, the survey also includes a sample of 850 county
Notes governments, which is excluded in this study.
18. Berners-Lee developed the first program for the original idea
11. Some studies were conducted with the sample collected in of the World Wide Web in 1990 and released it in 1991 to
a specific geographic boundary (California). Musso, Weare, the High Energy Physics community. In 1994, he formed
and Hale (2000) examine the applications of Web technolo- W3C as a neutral open forum to discuss and develop new
gies for local governance based on data collected from a computer protocols. W3C reached its standards in 1996. For
structured content analysis of 270 Californian municipal more information see the W3C Web site, www.w3.org/ (Ac-
governments’ Web sites. The study concluded that many cessed September 7, 2001).
municipal Web sites are not well designed and do not make 19. Svara (1999) also finds that the roles of elected officials
substantial contributions to better local governance. (council members) and chief administrators, particularly in
12. The five-stage framework is adapted from Hiller and large council-manager cities, are getting increasingly
Bélanger (2001). The United Nations and the American blurred, though they continue to complement each other
Society for Public Administration (2001) also suggest a simi- (middle-range policy making versus goal setting).
lar framework for the Global Study of E-government: (1) 10. The mean difference in the adoption of a strategic plan for
emerging Web presence; (2) enhanced Web presence; (3) e-government between the two types of governments is not
interactive Web presence; (4) transactional Web presence; statistically significant.
and (5) fully integrated Web presence. These proposed stages
11. Some municipal governments indicated that they have imple-
of e-government seem to focus on Web-based public ser-
mented various programs such as establishing pubic access
vices (information provision and public service delivery)
terminals in city facilities (729 municipalities), working with
and do not include Web-based political participation and
local schools (392 municipalities), and providing training
virtual democracy (online voting and public forums). Layne
and technical support for citizens (201).
and Lee’s study (2001) also proposes a similar stage-growth
model of e-government that presents a general progress of
e-government based on technical, organizational, and mana-
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