E-Democracy, E-Commerce, and E-Research

Abstract

Few doubt that the Internet is changing citizen interactions with government. To assess those changes, the authors analyze data from a telephone survey on how Georgia residents connect with government via the Internet. They find that citizens visit government Web sites for many reasons, which can be divided into three categories: e-democracy, e-commerce, and e-research. E-democracy is the least common activity, and it alone resembles traditional political behavior by being more prevalent among respondents interested in politics and government. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for future citizen engagement with e-governance and for the role of government in facilitating that engagement.