Defining e-Governance

Abstract

This article sets out to establish a definition of the term ‘e-governance” and suggests that not only is e-governance distinct from e-government, but that this distinction is important to scholarship and practice and that important differences exist between e-governance and traditional concepts of public governance. In order to establish a definition of e-governance, a conceptualization of public sector governance which differentiates between structural and normative governance is proposed. The influence of ICT on each of these forms of governance is then examined using a number of examples. It is argued that while ICT has little effect on some aspects of governance, it has a considerable impact on others.