8. Conclusion

Cities and towns in the United States, Germany, France, and Japan have set sail into the age of digital government. Their journeys began and continue with the dissemination of information via the Internet but they soon moved beyond this basic level of e-government functionality. In recent years, municipalities have continued to strengthen the billboards level of e-government functionality and accelerated expansion of on-line service delivery opportunities. An overview of trends in local e-government adoption across the major industrialized countries over the past two decades illustrates that shift. From both a macro and case studies perspective of local e-government that relies on a combined sample of more than 2000 incorporated municipalities across the federal republics of the United States and Germany as well as the unitary republics of France and Japan, and draws on the cities of Seattle (United States), Nuremberg (Germany), Bordeaux (France), and Shizuoka (Japan), our research also shows that the digital age has arrived at the local level of government. As a result, e-government has contributed to a new modus operandi in terms of how municipalities provide information to and interact with citizens.