Prioritizing public values in e-government policies: A document analysis

• Published in: Information polity Vol. 25; no. 3; pp. 275 - 300
• Main Authors: Chantillon, Maxim, Crompvoets, Joep, Peristeras, Vassilios
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.2020; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Corporate governance; Electric power distribution; Electronic government; EU membership; Governance; Hierarchies; Internet; Markets; Politics; Public administration; Public policy; Public sector; Public services; Value creation; Values; governance approaches; E-government; public values
• ISSN: 1570-1255; 1875-8754
• DOI: 10.3233/IP-190126

This article investigates which public values are prioritized in e-government policies, what the connection is to governance approaches and how the public value prioritization can be explained. Strategic horizontal e-government policy documents are analysed from 2000 to 2018 in Belgium, the United Kingdom and the European Union. A public value typology is developed which connects three-ideal type governance approaches: (1) hierarchy, (2) market and (3) network. The results show that market related public values often play a dominant role in e-government policy documents, but so do – to a lesser degree – network related public values. Hierarchy related public values are seldom dominant. At the national level, four factors explain the prioritization: The attention for a specific governance approach at a given time, the influence of politics, the specific topic of the e-government policy document and the role of authors. Power distribution at the EU level plays a key role in defining the public values balance. This articles contributes to the knowledge on public values in e-government policies, the wider discussion on governance approaches in public administration and the need to understand the relation between public values and public value creation.