Interaction between States and Citizens in the Age of the Internet: “e‐Government” in the United States, Britain, and the European Union

We examine the origins of the recent shift towards “e‐government” in three cases: the United States, Britain, and the European Union. We set out three heuristic models of interaction between states and citizens that might underpin the practice of “e‐government.” Focusing on U.S., British, and European Union initiatives, we undertake a comparative analysis of the evolution of key policy statements on e‐government reform in national (and supranational) government. We conclude that the democratic potential of the Internet has been marginalized as a result of the ways in which government use of such technology has been framed since the early 1990s. An executive‐driven, “managerial” model of interaction has assumed dominance at the expense of “consultative” and “participatory” possibilities.