About eGovernance

When discussing the concept of eGovernance we must first of all briefly visit and address the concept of governance itself.

Governance

Both the word itself (direct translation: to steer) and the concept derive from ancient Greece and where used by Plato, who was the first to use it in the contemporary metaphorical sense. In the modern view, the concept of governance is understood as the process of governing, which is not necessarily directly connected to government. “Simply put "governance" means: the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented)1.Governance as a process may be applied to all different types of organizations in different spheres of social activity. It may apply to private businesses, NGO’s, public authorities as well as all national, sub national and international organizations (UN) and international political associations and union (EU).

Good governance

Although the term governance is not inherently a political term it is being used by contemporary political thought to denote a modern, democratic and transparent approach to politics and political administration with special attention given to its developmental aspects. In this sense, the term good governance had been coined as an antonym to traditional, “old”, ineffective, uneconomical and sometimes undemocratic political and administrative processes governing different states, businesses and organizations. According to this new political paradigm governance should possess eight inherent characteristics in order to be labelled good governance. In this view, good governance is/should be: participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law.2

Figure 1: Characteristics Of Good Governance

Source: http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/gg/governance.asp

CeGD's view on good governance

In the Digital Age, good government is an accessible government.3
The Centre for eGovernance Development in South East Europe (CeGD) understands and employs the concept of good governance from the Information-Communication Technologies’ (ICT) perspective, primarily focusing on those good governance characteristics that could and will be enhanced through the use of ICT.
Implementation of the good governance concept focuses on four good governance characteristics; participation, responsiveness, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency which are perceived as vital for creating a single SEE regional information space.
In line with the statement quoted above we could say that accessible government is a foundation for good governance in matters relating to public authorities, always keeping in mind that other characteristics are equally important.

eGovernance

The team at CeGD understands eGovernance as a concept that inherently incorporates the concepts of governance, good governance and ICT solutions. In this sense, eGovernance is primarily understood as good governance facilitated by the use of ICT. ICT plays a pivotal role in assuring the implementation of good governance characteristics. Level of participation, equity and inclusiveness for large numbers of citizens, effectiveness and efficiency of public administration can all be vitally improved by the use of ICT tools in public administration processes. If we accept this view of eGovernance, it must be said that ICT is not only vitally important for the promotion of good governance, but is its integral part. With that in mind we may ascertain that eGovernance is in fact good governance facilitated by electronic means. Furthermore, if we understand governance to mean the interaction between government and citizens and government and businesses, as well as internal government operations 4, eGovernance is simply the application of electronic means to all of these processes.
eGovernance, it is said, is the modern path to reinforcing the connection between public officials and communities thereby leading to a stronger, more accountable and inclusive democracy.5

That is why, Information Society Umbrella (which carries a strong inclusiveness component) represents the vision of CeGD - "to achieve the successful development of Information Society in South East Europe (SEE) that will contribute to the future development of European continent". Creation of a single SEE regional information space is offering affordable and secure high-bandwidth communications, rich and diverse content and digital services 6. It is further reinforcing democracy through the implementation of good governance concept and enabling citizens to explore and fully bring to effect opportunities offered by ICT and global digital environment.