The Virtual Value Chain and E-Government Partnership: Non-Monetary Agreements in the IRS E-File Program

Abstract

Electronic government (e-government) models generally espouse the principle of partnership with the private sector. What is not always clear is what is meant by partnership, though, and how public organizations should organize and manage such relationships to support e-government initiatives. The paper relies on a conceptual framework of the virtual value chain to understand how a new form of collaboration emerged in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) e-file program in 1999 and what dimensions helped to make it a success. As part of a larger, multi-nation study of public–private partnerships in e-government, this paper examines IRS e-file program, one of the largest, longest-standing (dating back to 1986), and most successful US e-government programs with tens of millions of users each year.

The IRS e-file program experienced dramatic changes in its long-standing partnership with the tax preparation and related software development industries in 1999 and 2000. It is possible, using the concept of the virtual value chain, to understand how the IRS rethought its relationship with its private-sector partners. A combination of conditions in the market place, in US society, within the IRS, and among the private-sector partners helped to make this new model of collaboration quite successful. The paper concludes by examining how the dimensions of partnership in the IRS e-file case and the concept of the virtual value chain might enable other public organizations to reconceptualize their e-government partnership arrangements with the private sector using a new model of collaboration.     

Impact of Government Capacity and E-Government Performance on the Adoption of E-Government Services

ABSTRACT

This study explored the impact of government capacity and e-government performance on the adoption of e-government services by integrating it into the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The results showed that both government capacity and government performance were significant determinants of the perceived usefulness of e-government services. Also, government capacity was revealed to positively predict e-government performance. In addition, perceived usefulness of e-government services was found to be a significant predictor of the intention to recommend the adoption of e-government services. The implications of these findings on the implementation of e-government are discussed.     

Government/non-profit Partnerships,Public Services Delivery,and Civil Society in the Transitional Nations of Eastern Europe: Lessons from the Hungarian Experience

Abstract

This paper will explore the complexity of the relationship between government and non-profit organizations in the context of Hungary on the cusp of accession to the European Union. First it will argue that the concept of a civil society is in fact not a unitary one but, rather, a cluster of linked concepts. It will argue further that it is essential to deconstruct this cluster of concepts in order to develop a common language. Without such a language it is not possible to debate the achievement of a civil society, or otherwise. This article is a contribution to the development of such conceptual clarity.     

US Performance-Based Laws: Information Technology and E-Government Reporting Requirements

Abstract

Electronic government (e-government) is the use of information technology (IT) and the Internet to transform federal agency effectiveness—including efficiency and service quality. Several US laws, including the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Computer Security Act, the Clinger-Cohen Act, the Government Information Security Reform Act (GISRA), and the E-Government Act, contain IT and e-government performance-reporting requirements. For each, the author reviews the legislative history and then focuses on the specific requirements for reporting to Congress, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and agency heads. The author concludes that OMB’s new Office of Electronic Government needs to evaluate whether performance requirements could be improved through (1) consolidation, thereby providing a more comprehensive discussion of agency IT and e-government issues, and (2) addressing broader issues, such as an across-government focus on both national and international IT issues.     

‘The Foreign Within’: State–Civil Society Relations in Russia

Abstract

The development of Russian civil society is linked to authoritarian government, fear of ‘colour revolutions’ and the ‘sovereign democracy’ that legitimises state control of civil society. This article acknowledges the narrowing room for manoeuvre of contemporary Russian civil society and discusses NGOs’ practices in the context of government pressures, the politicisation of transnational connections and the increasing geopolitical tension surrounding Russia. It describes the localisation and depoliticisation of Russian NGOs as well as their disruptive practices, and explains how narrowing civil society identities inform the self-governing of NGOs. Finally, it argues that seeing Russian civil society in simple dichotomies further narrows these identities.     

“If You Want to Be Russian Go to the United States”

Abstract

The latest and largest group of Russian immigrants arrived in the United States after 1983, when the Soviet Union collapsed. This was the first time in over seventy years that Russia's Jews were allowed to leave Russia. Unlike many other immigrants, this group had lived in a country where little or no contact had been allowed with the outside world. Not unlike Plato's characters living in a cave, the Russian Jews saw the outside world only as it had been portrayed in Russian propaganda. Mistrust of the Soviet regime led to fantasies and confusion about it.

Understanding this group of immigrants requires knowing something of Jewish life in Russia during the last hundred years. In an enclosed, totalitarian, oppressive society, individuals developed character traits that were necessary for survival. Some of these will be discussed in this article. Lack of knowledge on the part of the immigrants as well as on the part of American human services professionals has often led to culture shock for both groups. Misunderstandings, unrealistic expectations, and difficulties with language have caused frustration, anger, and hurt.

Increased cultural knowledge has been necessary to open up communication between immigrant clients and American service providers. Many signs have begun to point the way to different attitudes and greater     

Guyana Gold: A Unique Resource Curse?

ABSTRACT

This article offers explanations for the underwhelming economic performance of Guyana, a country heavily dependent on the revenue generated from gold mining. Here, government intervention has spawned a gold mining sector which today is comprised exclusively of local small and medium-scale operators. But whilst this rather unique model appears to be the ideal blueprint for facilitating local development, the country seems to be experiencing many of the same setbacks that have beset scores of other resource-rich developing world economies. Unless these problems are anticipated, properly diagnosed and appropriately tackled, a resource curse-type outcome is inevitable, irrespective of the context.     

Emigrants and the state in Ethiopia: transnationalism and the challenges of political antagonism

ABSTRACT

Since the fall of military-socialist government in 1991 in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has embarked on the total restructuring of the state. It has presented ‘Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ as an ‘organizing principle’ and it has been working towards the rebuilding of the Ethiopian state along this line. The focus of this paper is EPRDF's policies and practices of engagement of Ethiopian emigrants. The analysis is based on information and interviews with government officials in Addis Ababa and with Ethiopian migrants in Washington DC during February–May 2013. This study indicates that the EPRDF government gradually started to focus its attention on Ethiopian migrants around the world, mainly due to the growing economic significance of their transnational engagement in Ethiopia. The study also shows the circumstances in which political debates about the conditions in Ethiopia has been permeating interactions within Ethiopians emigrants.     

Perilous semi-presidentialism? On the democratic performance of Timor-Leste government system

ABSTRACT

Timor-Leste chose semi-presidentialism as its government system to steer the country towards a democratic state. This government system became popular in the course of the ‘Third Wave’ of democratization, but has no other example in Southeast Asia. The Timorese Constituent Assembly was guided not by an appraisal of the virtues and pitfalls of competing systems, but by historical and political factors that led it to craft an institutional solution in line with significant features of Timorese society. Yet the specific form of semi-presidentialism adopted in Timor-Leste (‘president-parliamentarism’) is regarded in the literature as prone to instability. However, in spite of episodes of instability, the conclusion emerging from three consecutive presidencies is one of positive steps in democracy-building and consolidation. This is mainly due to the emergence of ‘independent’ presidents who have sought power-sharing arrangements and promoted inclusive governance.     

The Changing Facets of Public Administration in the United Arab Emirates

ABSTRACT

This article is an in-depth profile of the public administration system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It specifically focuses on the relationship between the state, the market and civil society, the structure of the government and the civil service system and its functional areas. Reform initiatives undertaken in all these areas over the last decade have also been discussed. The findings reveal that the public administration system in the UAE has demonstrated considerable developments in facilitating the market forces, opening space for civil society and modernizing the civil service system.     

Civil Society,the Economy,and Educational Assistance in Former Soviet Republics

Abstract

Liberal democracies throughout the world are committed to civil society in support of market economics and democratic politics. Through educational assistance programs, the U.S. government demonstrates this commitment by attempting to reinvigorate civil society in former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries in support of their economic and political reform efforts. Of particular interest are the Community Connections and Partners in Education programs conducted by the U.S. Department of State for interns from the former Soviet republics or now Eurasia, who participate in business and other professional internships in various locations in the U.S., including Northern Alabama.     

Egypt’s Many Public Administration Transitions: Reform Vision and Implementation Challenges

ABSTRACT

This article discusses Egypt’s many transitions toward public administration reform. It argues that some of these transitions have collided with an existing large and complex bureaucracy and a legacy of state-led development, such as the protracted and contentious process related to the civil service regulation reforms. Similarly, despite decades of decentralization efforts, state budgeting praxis remains centralized and concentrated. While attracting private investment for job creation and economic growth is a key priority to Egypt, state centrism overshadows the experience. Other transitions, however, have thrived at a much faster pace, such as the adoption of e-government.     

Notes on a psychodynamic theory of terrorist behavior

Abstract

Because of the diversity of terrorist groups and causes, there is no one terrorist “mindset.” Within this diversity it is useful to distinguish two major categories: the “anarchic‐ideologues,” such as the Red Army Faction, committed to destroying the world of their fathers; and the “nationalist‐secessionists,” such as ETA of the Basques, who carry on the mission of their fathers.

There is a tendency for marginal, isolated, and inadequate individuals from troubled family backgrounds to be attracted to the path of terrorism, so that for many, belonging to the terrorist group is the first time they truly belonged, and the group comes to represent family. This creates powerful pressures to conform within the group, for to disagree is to be seen as disloyal, and to risk losing the group. Organized against society, the group is seen as all good, and the outside society as all bad, this being the rationale for committing violent anti‐society acts.     

An Evaluation Analysis of E-government Development by Local Authorities in Australia

Local governments play an important role in moving forward towards the vision of a connected and responsive e-government. This research develops a set of evaluation criteria for evaluating local council's websites. By examining the current status of the local government websites, this research provides an overview of the level of sophistication of the e-local government development in Australia. The local governments in Australia have not developed truly sophisticated e-government services. The majority of the local government websites are primarily informational and they provide one way communication of information from government to citizens.

To identify the factors affecting the level of sophistication of local council's websites, a single case study approach is employed in this research. Top leadership support and management capacity and organisational and technical challenges are considered important for e-government development. User-centric website design and bridging the digital divide also play a role in the successful implementation of e-government.     

A Solution to the Crimean Crisis: Egalitarian Shared Sovereignty Applied to Russia,Ukraine and Crimea

Abstract

Sovereignty is intrinsic to conflict in international relations. There are various sovereignty disputes around the world caught between legal and political limbo, the status quo and continuous tension, with various negative consequences for all the parties involved. It is increasingly clear that the available remedies have been less than successful, and that a peaceful and definitive solution is needed. The essay considers how theories of distributive justice, and particularly the hypothetical thought experiments proposed by Rawlsian theory, can be used productively with the concept of sovereignty and explores the possibility of a solution for sovereignty conflicts such as the Crimean case by the application of a Rawlsian methodology.     

Retaking the Middle Passage: glimpses of a modern African diaspora in Brazil

Abstract

Enticed by the various economic, academic and social promises offered by this new ‘metropole’, Africans have begun to form a new diaspora in Brazil, the country with the largest concentration of Afro descendentes outside of Africa. This paper aims to explore, through interviews, the various motivations and experiences of these Africans, as well as to examine the official attitude of the Brazilian authorities and that of the society at large to the new residents of this modern African diaspora.     

Negative democracy and the distortion of american character

The managerial role in our society has done more to erode the development of American character than assist it. For public administration, a more appropriate role is based in the idea of governance. Governance puts the development of character as the first priority of public administration. Adopting this role does not necessarily require structural reform in public institutions or a dismantling of the market, but instead calls for a commitment to a changed disposition among public officials regarding the purposes of government and the potentialities of human relationship. The administrative role must move away from instrumental conceptions of management that focus our minds upon discrete decisions and achievements, to one that embraces life as an ongoing process of maturation in democratic community.

In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture on earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building, no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no art; not letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Thomas Hobbes

The Leviathan

To many great civilizations past and present, the unity of nature is a fact of immediate experience that needs no special pleading. In the West, however, much of the history of science is concerned with separating and reducing this unity into ever smaller and smaller fragments out of which nature has somehow to be glued back together.

Mae-Wan Ho

We have two kinds of politics in this country...the politics of greed and the politics of guilt. We have to create the politics of convergence.

Sen. William Bradley D-New Jersey April, 1992     

The Upliftment of South African Local Government?

Theoretically, South Africa has one of the most advanced systems of local government in the world with its powers and functions being constitutionally entrenched. Two different conceptual models of local government were used to assess how autonomous this local government system is in practice. The autonomous model views local government as a clearly separated sphere of government, while the integrationist model sees greater functional interdependence between the various spheres of government. The article concludes that there are different views of decentralisation within the state. On the one hand there are local government reform measures by the state to position itself within the global economy that reflects a more integrationist view of local government. On the other hand there are elements of the autonomous model such as attempts to empower local government through the promotion of local democracy.     

Indigenous food sovereignty in a captured state: the Garifuna in Honduras

Abstract

This study explores the emergence of the Afro-Indigenous food sovereignty movement in the context of a captured Honduran state and unequal political economy. In contrast with national-level research that has advocated a policy of food security in the context of non-indigenous campesino movements, this work explains how food sovereignty is more appropriate regarding Garifuna Hondurans. In a political economy that has precluded other options, and given the deep cultural relation that Garifuna activists have to land and autonomy, food sovereignty provides a possibility around which Indigenous development can be animated. It encapsulates a local ‘fight’ response to repression as an alternative to northern ‘flight’, often via migrant caravans, that many Garifuna have undertaken. This study shows how food sovereignty, more than being a technical policy set, is a discursive and material node through which dispossessed and especially indigenous populations can enhance decolonial power in the contestation of entrenched hegemonic and institutionalised power in a corrupt, unequal and colonised political economy.     

Local E-Government and Devolution: Electronic Service Delivery in Northern Ireland

There are billions of annual transactions between citizens and government; most of these are between citizens and local government. Both central and local government share the same target for electronic service delivery: 100% of key services online by 2005. In Northern Ireland, however, district councils are being left behind on the e-government agenda. The Northern Ireland Assembly, currently suspended, has no provisions or recommendations for local e-government, although many transactional services of interest to ordinary citizens are provided by local councils. The absence of a strategy for local e-government means that district councils are left to their own devices, and this contrasts with the rest of the UK. A snapshot of local councils is used to assess the extent of provision of electronic service delivery, highlighting examples of innovation, and indicating significant challenges for Northern Ireland local e-government during a period of suspended devolution.