Romanian Urban e‑Government. Digital Services and Digi‑tal Democracy in 165 Cities

Abstract

There is little disagreement in the doctrine that we live in extremely changing and innovative societies. Nowadays, the information technology is getting more and more accessible, complex and secure, changing the well‑established traditions of modern societies. In many democratic states, electronic‑government represents an answer to the request of reducing the cost of the decisional process. However, the new administration requires not only an innovative solution, but "intelligent citizens" to make use of it. Recent studies show that e‑government has developed five stages, each of them reflecting the degree of technical sophistication and of interaction with the users: simple information dissemination (one‑way communication), two‑way communication, service and fi‑ nancial transactions, integration (horizontal and vertical), and political participation. Starting from this model, the present research evaluates the stage of urban e‑government within Romania, and identifies its influencing variables. All existing sites of urban local administration — 165 cities ‑ are analyzed through the perspective of both digital government (public services through internet) and digital democracy (citizens' participation to the governing process through internet). Despite the fact that literature regarding e‑government is continuously de‑ veloping, the number of empirical researches worldwide is relatively a small one. The evaluation of Romanian local e‑government is a national premiere and will enlist Romania among those where a comprehensive evalua‑ tion has been made. Finally, alternative future researches on variables that influence Romanian e‑government performance are outlined.