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Abstract
The political context for eGovernment in Australia, as in many countries, is the global economic liberalism that has dominated for the last 20 to 30 years. This has manifest in public policy circles as the broad range of reforms known as NPM. Electronic government (eGovernment) has been heralded as a panacea for all public sector management ills. It promises a new era of governance, but ignores the political and social context in which policy is implemented. More than service delivery ‘online’, eGovernment is a broad loose term which incorporates the desire to reform ‘back office’ operations through the use of ICT and re-direct the structures in which the public sector operates.
This thesis examines international variations of eGovernment and explores how strategy has emerged from NPM traditions and interaction with ICT. This research makes a contribution to knowledge in the areas of, NPM, policy implementation and eGovernment. It was found eGovernment has much in common with NPM. However, it also adds ICT-driven reform objectives and new service delivery possibilities. Applying a hermeneutic approach to textual interpretation, this research develops an ‘eGovernment Framework’ from the common objectives of eGovernment strategies and provides an understanding of the challenges associated with the development and enactment of eGovernment, using NSW as a case study.