Whom do we learn from? The impact of global networks and political regime types on e-government development

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of global networks on e-government development and the role of political regime types in e-government diffusion through international networks. We built a unique social network dataset that covers 148 countries for the years between 2003 and 2014. Our network dataset is rooted in two assumptions: 1) international organizations serve as peak organizations for international policy networks, 2) public managers who participate in international e-government conferences held by the UN and OECD work as boundary spanners. Our empirical evidence suggests that countries well embedded in global e-government networks receive ideas for public sector innovation from international conferences and show a high level of e-government development. However, political regime types serve as implicit and explicit filters of ideas for boundary-spanning activities. Ties between countries with the same political regime improve e-participation and ties between autocracies have a positive impact on online service delivery. However, ties between countries with different political regimes have no impact on e-participation and a negative influence on online service delivery. Thus, we debunk the democratic advantage perspective by demonstrating that democracies and autocracies have different ideas of and purposes for e-government.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Erzsebet Fazekas, Ramon Gil-Garcia, and Brian Greenhill for their valuable feedback.

Conflict of interest

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beomgeun Cho

Beomgeun Cho ([email protected]) is a PhD candidate at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany. His research interests include network governance, comparative public administration, and social network analysis.

R. Karl Rethemeyer

R. Karl Rethemeyer ([email protected]) is professor of public policy and dean at the college of social & behavioral science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. An expert on social networks, he conducts research in three areas: the first focuses on policy networks, collaborative networks, and network management; the second focuses on the intersection of management networks and clinical health practice; and the third focuses on terrorism, terrorist organizations, terrorist networks, and counterinsurgency/stabilization operations.