Conclusions
Data from the 2011 survey of local e-government paint a picture
of the gradual, if not incremental, expansion of e-government at
the American grassroots. By 2004, nearly all local governments of
any size in the United States had adopted e-government and were
mainly providing information and services, along with a limited
range of transactions and interactions on their Web sites (Coursey
2005; Coursey and Norris 2008; Norris and Moon 2005). By 2011,
American local governments were off ering greater arrays of information,
services, transactions, and interactions online through their
Web sites. However, information and services continued to prevail
(versus transactions and interactions) on local government Web
sites in 2011. Th is is partly, if not mainly, because information and
services represent the “low-hanging fruit” and are easier and less
costly to automate on Web sites. It may also be, although we cannot
know from these data, that uptake rates are greater for information
and services (in any event, this is a question for further research).
Whatever the reason or reasons, this empirical reality stands in stark
contrast to the predictions of the normative models and the claims
of the cyber-optimists that e-government would naturally evolve
from the provision of basic information and services to transactional,
interactive e-government, horizontal and vertical integration,
and to e-democracy and e-transformation