E-government in Lebanon : the case of websites of Lebanese municipalities.

Abstract

Despite the enormous literature on e-government and the factors of adoption of e-government, existing frameworks in this context have been limited to developed countries. This paper highlights the importance and benefits of e-government adoption in local governments, leading to faster and easier public services provision by citizens. It also identifies the interrelated factors which lead to failure or success in e-government. Today, Lebanese some citizens suffer from redundancy during standard operating procedures (SOPs) and when accessing public services because of red tape that dominates traditional public administration. Therefore, improving the functions of municipalities is a crucial step for citizens to gain the trust of their local government; yet, there is little to no data available on e-government practices in Lebanon. Thus, this work will study the efficiency of websites in Lebanon at the local level, particularly in municipalities. It will use a mixed approach by observing the content of the websites of 211 municipalities. The websites will also be evaluated using content analysis, and will be selected using nonprobability sampling, representing 26 districts in Lebanon. In addition, interviews will be conducted with municipalities which have websites in order to better understand the challenges faced and the different factors that influenced the initiation and development of these websites. The research problem that I am trying to address here is summarized in the following questions: What is the importance of e-governance? How can it be adopted? If available, are websites efficient in Lebanese municipalities? If not, what are the ways in which municipality websites can improve? My analysis revealed the main challenges which some municipalities face when initiating and developing their websites, some factors were not identified in the literature. It also helped me to identify the set of factors that can lead to failure or success of e-government in Lebanon. This helped me to give some possible recomm