Turkish Case of E-Government Strategy Development and Policy-Formulation Process

Abstract

Use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) by governments all over the world has opened new avenues in terms of redesigning the relationship between the state and not only the society but also the businesses, creating new forms of relationships with wider meanings especially for the society as a whole, and ideas and practices regarding policy making process. While enjoying centralist tendencies and a strict hierarchical bureaucratic model intrinsic to the inner cycles of the organizational levels, the Turkish administrative system has been trying new forms of governance models exemplified in e-government policies. This paper tries to analyze and discuss the main tenets, actors, coordinating and partnership mechanisms, undertakings, evaluation techniques and prospects of e-government policies as a newly emerging policy area with specific reference to Turkish e-transformation efforts, policies and initiatives. Firstly, the paper would underline the “formation” and “participation” (formulation) dimension and stage of the ICT policy process. Presenting up-to-date information and analyses regarding the developments in recent and current stage of evolution, guidelines and suggestions for future are also provided. The discussion will also be furthered by an analysis of country (Turkey) rankings in international (United Nations) e-government reports as an up-to-date case of strategy development, policy formulation and implementation.