2. Current Trends in Local E-Government

The wave of intensified economic globalization and the increasing density of networked computers since the fall of the Berlin Wall have become major forces across the industrialized countries and have touched all levels of government. Some argue that globalization has shifted the focus of economic and political activities to the global level at the expense of the national and grassroots level. There are also those who argue that the network technology underpinning the Internet concentrates power among the political elite rather than decentralizing decision making (Warschauer, 2003). Others disagree with these viewpoints and draw attention to the important role of the sub-national within the context of the globalized information technologies. In conjunction with the use of ICTs, local governments can serve as flows able to facilitate the dissemination of information and networks across and beyond government (Castells, 1989, 2006). Research efforts since 1996 also suggest the increasing importance of ICTs at the local level. According to the latest E-Government Reference Library (Version 10.0), a list of peer reviewed publications in this area compiled by Dr. Hans Scholl at the University of Washington, Table 2.1 illustrates the proliferation of local e-government peer-reviewed references (Fig. 2.1).