E-governance and E-democracy in South Korea: Civil Participation Essay

What everyone is hailing as a new phenomenon is the coming to the fore of e-government and e-democracy. The phenomenon is new and had been around only for ten years. It started at around the beginning of the 1990s following in the wake of the advent of the Internet (UOC 2002). There had been various technology advances that came into existence that had shown good result in the private sector by enabling the availability of numerous services and information online. The members of the private sectors had exploited these new introductions effectively by putting them to good use. Some concerned citizens had been asking why the various governments are not doing what the private sector had been doing for some time now. Governments also in their quest to be efficient in what they are doing had been examining these new technologies from a while back where there had been effort to implement them effectively in what the various governments are doing. Currently, both the citizens and the various governments are working to harness these new technologies in order to put them to a constructive use. However, it is not easy as there is cost involved, as well as it would take time for all introductions to be effective simply because there is a lot of work involved. In addition, there is effort to create some kind of a balance between the demand-pull and the supply-pull that this paper will discuss further so that the whole undertaking will be productive. The whole idea of e-government and e-democracy rotates around the government policy making process, the kind of citizen participation that is prevalent, and the kind of public work conducted through the existing interaction. The advent of the Internet at around the year 1991 had altered the interaction, whereby the traditional way of carrying governmental duties had evolved eventually to uphold what is stated in the participatory theory. What used to be the norm was the citizens would elect their representatives and pay their taxes. Those elected representatives will form the various governmental bodies that will come up with policies and allocate the available resources based on what the priority is. That includes the up-keeping of existing programs, where the requirement is to conduct the measures taken according to what the law requires. The outcome of such a governing method had always created a barrier making it difficult for the political leaders to know what kind of change in the need as well as priority of the citizen had been introduced simply because there was a lack of citizen participation. There was also a lack of mechanism through which the government could find out what the citizens need or what their stand is as far as certain aspects of implementing measures were concerned. This was due to the lack of mechanism through which citizens can input what they want to communicate to those they have elected them into the various offices. Since the introduction of the Internet, this process had been changing for the better. Starting from the connectivity that is made simple and available in a large scale, the coming into existence of various software, as well as new technologies had enhanced the whole deal, where it was increasingly becoming possible to meet the challenges of delivering a very effective public service by allowing the citizens to participate more often. Concepts such as e-government and e-democracy were the byproducts of such developments and eventually they had become complex concepts that require in depth studying and analysis in order to apply them properly and effectively. Harnessing them properly would result in such a way that there will be a top-down and a bottom-up interaction among those who are involved, mainly the citizens and those in charge of governmental policies. This paper will analyze and discuss where this whole concept started off, what is the perception, and implication of e-government and e-democracy are as well the participation level of the citizens. In addition the study covers, what the new technological introductions had ushered in and what kind of interaction is prevalent or had come into existence among the various governmental bodies and the citizens who are the stakeholders and are the ones who put in office representatives who in their turn are emulating to serve them effectively. The whole idea of e-government and e-democracy focuses at the government policy making process, the kind of citizen participation that is prevalent in the process, and the kind of public work conducted through the existing interaction. The particular interaction had gone through a transformation since the advent of the Internet at around the year 1991, whereby the traditional way of carrying out governmental duties had evolved eventually. What this had resulted into is citizens are gradually becoming participants in the decision making process that will affect their day to day living, as well as how they will be benefited from what is due to given members of society who are the tax payers. The interaction also involves businesses where the G2B participation takes place and the outcome had been observed to be information technology is empowering everyone involved in the process of running an effective society enabling each participant to play their part more effectively where doing things democratically is becoming more and more possible. In light of this, the essay will try to shed light on the new phenomenon that found its way into the working process of what governments, businesses, and citizens are doing and have become to be perceived as e-government and e-democracy. The method used is qualitative research simply because the analysis focuses on the effect of the advent of new electronic mediums on what governments are doing, as far as their decision making process is concerned. There had always been a certain amount of citizen involvement in the government decision making process that highlights the existing C2G relationship. It was possible to augment the earlier level of involvement because of the arrival of electronic mediums such as the Internet that had made any kind of interaction between various groups easily manageable while making the participation theory more of a reality. Hence, this particular qualitative research is exploring the phenomenon that is created by the introduction of the new electronic mediums into what the various governments are doing and study what kind of effect it already has on the decision making process the various governmental bodies when they start involving the citizens more and the benefits brought to the fore. The other area is it had been made possible to use these new mediums to avail governmental services to the citizens and its effect had been analyzed based on its effect on how the various governments are carrying out their duties, while at the same time what the outcome had been so far. Furthermore, the research includes why such an interaction is important in order to enhance what the government is doing, by enabling it to render an effective service without incurring high cost, as well as what the benefit to the citizens will be when their participation level is enhanced. This would mean the process of using and allocating resources would be more manageable among other achievements such as convenience of doing business and being cost effective. The qualitative research also studies how the whole process is affecting the citizens who are becoming more informed and what that would mean for the present time and the future. Hence, the qualitative research method used is more or less a â€Å"case study† of the interaction of the various governments and the citizens at the various levels that they are serving them and regarding how the introduction of the new electronic mediums such as the Internet is affecting it. There is still a dispute as to what exactly e-government means. There are sources such as E-government Policy Network of the Privy Office (PCO) that claims since the issue of e-government is complex it will be misleading to come up with a single definition. According to PCO, the best way out is to come up with a starting point that will lead to more dialogue that will eventually lead to a common perception of what e-government or e-governance would mean (PCO). Opponents of such outlooks are against such stance simply because they claim that it will add to the ambiguity and will make it difficult to hold governments accountable to what they are doing. Various agencies have various perception about information and communication technologies (ICTs) and according to the paper Kim presented major governmental agencies have their own take of e-government that is useful to examine simply because it is these kinds of governmental bodies that have the need to interact with the citizens that they are serving by raising their participation level, so that they would have a clear understanding of the public’s stand and outlook about the work they are doing (Kim). It is possible to do several things at the same time, where these governmental establishments could start finding a way of letting the citizens participate in the decision making process of what they are doing. They could also avail most of their services online that will result in introducing efficiency in what they are doing. Last but not least they could educate the public by availing easily accessible information online, which would enable them to interact with well informed citizens whose input would be more valuable. The EUC is one good example and had defined ITC as a powerful tool for applying good governance that harbors openness, active citizen participation, the acceptability of those involved, a focus in the effectiveness and coherence of whatever is going to be introduced. The OECD had defined e-government as the applying of ICT such as the Internet to achieve a better government that will introduce better policy results, enhanced service, a greater level of involving the citizens in what is taking place. The World Bank had defined e-government as the best way of harnessing Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile services that are proven to transform the interaction and participation between citizens, businesses, and the various forms of governments at various levels. Establishments such as the UN had zeroed in on the fact that what e-government ushers in is not different from what e-commerce had ushered in such a way that it would primary be Internet-driven where citizens could have an unobstructed government information, services, and the ability to participate in various decision making process, simply because it is not going to be difficult to muster such an undertaking. The UN also had its own definition where it emphasizes on the unwavering commitment governments should have in improving the interaction and participation of private citizens and the public sector, which would result in being cost effective and the information delivered and the working arrangement will end up being very effective, while at the time it will be possible to disseminate knowledge at a very high level. The outcome if applied in its entirety would mean it is possible to involve citizens in as many as possible decision making processes. Since that is not applicable in a large scale currently, it is difficult to assess or foretell what the outcome will be. Another key input of e-governance could be it can create a platform where various polarized groups can come together and consult on what will be best for everyone without introducing difficulty that will discourage the participants, where either they could find their effort futile or it will be difficult, time consuming, or costly everyone would want to avoid it. It is possible to attest that such capability is possible from what is happening now where citizens had been undertaking a wide range of interaction, not only with the various governmental bodies, but also with other non-governmental agencies that avail various services online. Some of the outcomes had been the result of the variety of technologies that are becoming available for use, as well as the kind of speed that had been made available to manipulate data and disperse them around for those who have important use for them. A good example to cite might be the various networks that are mushrooming on the Internet that can facilitate the flow of knowledge, ideas, and most of all information where the earlier prevalent monopolies of knowledge and information had been obliterated. Individuals could start a dialogue about any subject matter in various forms and attain a deep understanding of issues at hand, to the point where they can always make the required preparation before making important decisions. It is not only that they could also ask informed questions. What this would mean is it is possible for them to ask more service or information from the governments, while at the same time when governments introduce programs or services they would know how to put them to work effectively. Since the number of people that belong to a network is high, and most of all since it is voluntary, the collective measure they could take could have uniformity where governmental bodies will not have to deal with a single outlook, where such outlook might not be refined. A distinction between availing a service online that could introduce efficiency, cost reduction, time-saving, and convenience and when there is a program setup to generate feedback about a certain service the governments render was made. The latter had been found as useful simply because it could be a stimulant to introducing improvement on what the involved governments seeking the feedback could be availing to the citizens. Hence, based on the feedback it is possible to take measures, and this would mean such interaction could be labeled as an indirect participation in the government decision making process, where there is no direct voting involved. It might also be important to mention why paying attention to this issue is important simply because the use of the Internet is becoming widespread. The number of people who have Internet connection from their work place, at home, and numerous outlets established by various source is on the rise everywhere, hence more presence on such a medium is to the advantage of everyone simply because good outcome could be attained by having a well organized interaction and participation. It does not matter whether the government is availing most of its services online, or it is gathering feedback about what it is doing and what the citizens wants, or in some cases the decision making process could involve citizens directly by asking them to vote and the measures taken would be based on the vote. Overall, what the priority should be is to become familiar with the citizens’ need and try to accommodate it according to what the social changes require it. This would mean on the part of the government an effort to put to good use of whatever technological advancement comes to the fore. When that is the case the government would be in a position to avail efficient service to the citizens and eventually some kind of e-democracy could become practical. Similar to what Layne and Lee (2001, 122-135) did Kim had introduced four models of e-government and had concluded by saying the main drive of the change is not the advancement of technology. In fact, according to his observation what is responsible for the change is the diversity and evolution of society that resulted in making society, culture, and politics the main surges behind the change. The exception being that if new technologies such as the Internet did not come around, it will be difficult to say that evolvement could make it where it is now, although it is possible to attain the diversity without the new technologies. The four models of e-governments according to Kim are Bureaucracy Model, Information Management Model, Citizen Participation Model, and Governance Model.