Chapter 3 - E-Government and E-Governance

Summary

Introduction

There has been an evolution in the concept of good governance. First appearing in the twentieth century, the notion of good governance began in the discussions of business analysts and economists who were highlighting the structures and strategies of corporate management which succeed in increasing productivity and profits (IDRC 2005).

In the late 1980s, scientists in the field of social and economic development also began to consider the notion of good governance, focusing on the role of government. The World Bank presented good governance as a requirement, at a national level, to enable and facilitate the success of economic development reform (Haldenwang 2004). The UNDP followed, embracing the notion by the 1990s and further extending the idea that good governance would enable countries to achieve human development.

The ascendancy of good governance has occurred through long-term public administration reform. Toffler, cited in Denthardt and Grubbs (2003), proposed that there is a specific chronological order to the evolution of “human organizations,” and that this order includes three waves of organizations:

1. • “First-wave preindustrial organizations,” built to serve the preindustrial agricultural societies in their harvesting activities;

2. • “Second-wave industrial organizations” which developed centralized, hierarchical, bureaucratic mechanisms operating with uniformity principles in order to serve the growing urban populations emerging as a result of the industrial revolution;

3. • And finally “third-wave decentralized organizations” which had matured from bureaucracy to more flexible structures to address the needs of postindustrial societies.