A critical analysis of e-government evaluation models at national and local municipal levels

Abstract: The importance of e-government models lies in their offering a basis to measure and guide e-government. There is still no agreement on how to assess a government online. Most of the e-government models are not based on research, nor are they validated. In most countries, e-government has not reached higher stages of growth. Several scholars have shown a confusing picture of e-government. What is lacking is an in-depth analysis of e-government models. Responding to the need for such an analysis, this study identifies the strengths and weaknesses of major national and local e-government evaluation models. The common limitations of most models are focusing on the government and not the citizen, missing qualitative measures, constructing the e-equivalent of a bureaucratic administration, and defining general criteria without sufficient validations. In addition, this study has found that the metrics defined for national e-government are not suitable for municipalities, and most of the existing studies have focused on national e-governments even though local ones are closer to citizens. There is a need for developing a good theoretical model for both national and local municipal e-government.

Definindo a arena política local: sistemas partidários municipais na federação brasileira

This article analyzes the Brazilian political system from the local perspective. Following Cox (1997), we review the problems with electoral coordination that emerge from a given institutional framework. Due to the characteristics of the Brazilian Federal system and its electoral rules, linkage between the three levels of government is not guaranteed a priori, but demands a coordinating effort by the parties' leadership. According to our hypothesis, the parties are capable of coordinating their election strategies at different levels in the party system. Regression models based on two-stage least squares (2SLS) and TOBIT, analyzing a panel of Brazilian municipalities with data from the 1994 and 2000 elections, show that the proportion of votes received by a party in a given election correlates closely with its previous votes in majoritarian elections. Despite institutional incentives, the Brazilian party system shows evidence that it is organized nationally to the extent that it links the competition for votes at the three levels of government (National, State, and Municipal).

Contrasting models of land use regulation: Community, government and tourism development

This paper assesses the capacity of local communities and sub-national governments to influence patterns of tourism development, within the context of a globalizing economy. Through a comparison of the contrasting examples of Hawaii and Queensland, the paper indicates the consequences of different approaches to land use regulation. It points to the importance of planning and policy processes that integrate community interests, in order to achieve long-term, sustainable tourism development. Effective regulation of development can minimize the social and environmental impacts of tourism. The paper illustrates how community organizations and sub-national governments can articulate local interests, despite the global demands of investors for more deregulated markets in land.

'Localizing the national' - The rediscovery and reshaping of local campaigning in Australia

Pippa Norris provides a schematic account of the evolution of campaigning through premodern, modern and postmodern stages. In particular she points to an emerging postmodern phase of electioneering characterized by a renewed emphasis upon direct forms of engagement which resonate with an earlier period in which campaigns were locally fought and largely dependent upon the canvassing efforts of party workers and volunteers. Norris's analysis offers a useful prism with which to view recent developments in electioneering in Australia. In the past several elections the rival Labor and Liberal parties have attempted to achieve a synergy between their centrally conducted and constituency-level campaigns by ensuring that their national campaigns are locally relevant and address local concerns. Their efforts to 'localize the national' meld the use of sophisticated software with elements of a traditional 'meet and greet' politics and suggest that local campaigning may now have a new shape and importance.

Use of performance information by local politicians: a field study in the Portuguese context.

This paper seeks to investigate the use of performance information by politicians and whether the institutional reforms on performance management (PM) have been operationalized by local politicians. Differences on the policy field and the organizational context have been analyzed. Our goal is contribute to knowledge on PM in the political sphere and understand the different responses of politicians to government change initiatives (mainly coercive pressures). Our findings show that local politicians support the notion that greater attention should be devoted to the use of performance information on the evaluation process. Nevertheless they are very skeptic in relation to effective execution of government reforms. There is an internal culture where agencies are embedded, strongly influenced by the high degree of politicisation among senior managers, that lead politicians to be more concerned about personal opinions and informal performance information rather than to use more sophisticated information (output and outcome measures). The institutional approach helps us to identify political responses to institutional pressures and understand the reasons for a reduced use in the Portuguese context.

Relationships between NPM, the use of PM practices and the organizational performance: empirical evidence from government agencies

Purpose – this paper has two main purposes: (1)explore if government agencies more oriented to NPM postulates are more willing to use PM practices and to improve their performance; and (2) investigate whether the fit between the use of PM practices and the organizationa performance is dependent upon from the capacity of agencies to adapt its structures to changes introduced by NPM reforms. Design/methodology/approach - this paper is based on the survey method and provides empirical evidence from Portuguese government agencies.Findings (mandatory) - Our findings suggest that government agencies that made structural arrangements under the NPM reforms are more willing to use PM practices and will perform better than other agencies. In addition, this paper show that therelationship between the use of PM practices and the organizational performance is dependent upon from the agencies capacity to adopt new structural arrangements under the NPM reforms.Practical implications – this paper has three main contributions: (1) contribute to knowledge about the relationship between the introduction of NPM changes in the use of PM practices; (2) contribute to clarify whether agencies more oriented to NPM postulates are improving performance; and (3) help to clarify the way the organizations should adapt their structures for to be more effective in the use of PM practices. Originality/value - The quantitative empirical research, based on the unique survey applied to Portuguese government agencies on this field, allow us to add to prior research mainly based on case studies and oriented to local governments (Budding, 2004).

The rights approach to local public management: experiences from Brazil

The Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, Public Management and Citizenship Program was set up in 1996 with Ford Foundation support to identify and disseminate Brazilian subnational government initiatives in service provision that have a direct effect on citizenship. Already, the program has 2,500 different experiences in its data bank, the results of four annual cycles. The article draws some initial conclusions about the possibilities of a rights-based approach to public management and about the engagement of other agencies and civil society organizations.

Local Development Initiatives: the case of São Paulo and ABCD Municipalities

MARQUES, B.P. (2008) “Local Development Initiatives: the case of São Paulo and ABCD Municipalities”, in Actas do 14.º Congresso da APDR, Tomar, pp. 253-279, ISBN 978-972-98803-9-1.

E-government e participação política em Portugal

Dissertação de Mestrado em MPA - Administração Pública

Fiscal sustainability across government tiers

This paper analyses how fiscal adjustment comes about when both central and sub-national governments are involved in consolidation. We test sustainability of public debt with a fiscal rule for both the federal and regional government. Results for the German Länder show that lower tier governments bear a relatively smaller part of the burden of debt consolidation, if they consolidate at all. Most of the fiscal adjustment occurs via central government debt. In contrast, both the US federal and state levels contribute to consolidation of public finances.

How to set and monitor goals for prevalence of child obesity: guidance for Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and local authorities

This guidance follows on from the publication of the Government's obesity strategy Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: A Cross-Government strategy for England. The guidance provides advice to PCTs and local authorities on how to set child obesity goals as part of the Vital Signs and the National Indicator Set. This will be followed shortly with full guidance on developing local plans.

Telecommunications Competition Survey for Retail Local Voice Services in Iowa, January 26, 2004

Survey of retail local voice services for Iowa Utilities Board

Are rules-based government programs shielded from special-interest politics? Evidence from revenue-sharing transfers in Brazil

Manipulation of government finances for the benefit of narrowly defined groups is usuallythought to be limited to the part of the budget over which politicians exercise discretion inthe short run, such as earmarks. Analyzing a revenue-sharing program between the centraland local governments in Brazil that uses an allocation formula based on local population estimates,I document two main results: first, that the population estimates entering the formulawere manipulated and second, that this manipulation was political in nature. Consistent withswing-voter targeting by the right-wing central government, I find that municipalities withroughly equal right-wing and non-right-wing vote shares benefited relative to opposition orconservative core support municipalities. These findings suggest that the exclusive focus ondiscretionary transfers in the extant empirical literature on special-interest politics may understatethe true scope of tactical redistribution that is going on under programmatic disguise.