Electronic voting (whether it is remote or poll‑site) has a lack of transparency that makes its use controversial. Currently there is a lively debate regarding the deployment of electronic voting systems, with people arguing whether trustworthiness is only achievable by means of the use of backup paper trails. We believe that paper trails are not strictly necessary. In our opinion, the lack of transparency of electronic voting systems can be overcome to a great extent by using adequate security measures (technological, physical and procedural). Such security measures would provide clarity to the process and avoid the need to rely on complex and/or networked systems and/or proprietary closed systems.

We define and elaborate a Social Value framework supporting evaluation and attainment of the broader socio‑political and socio‑economic goals that characterise many electronic government initiatives. The key elements of the framework are the willingness of citizens to (positively) recommend an e‑Government service to others, based upon personal trust in the service provider, and personal experience of the service, based upon experience of service provision and outcomes. The validity of the framework is explored through an empirical quantitative study of citizens' experiences of a newly introduced e‑Government system to allocate public social housing. The results of this study include evidence of generic antecedents of trust and willingness to recommend, pointing the way to more general applicability of the framework for designers and managers of electronic government systems.

This paper analyses the way in which a major public sector organisation undertakes its high tech e‑ procurements and its power relationships at the interface with its private sector suppliers. This is undertaken by examining the corporate governance of significant high tech e‑procurements by the Australian Department of Defence. Comparative case study data of 106 e‑procurements were undertaken by the author over the key client development period from concept to contract award, with a view to determining 'best practice' e‑procurement process. The best practice model links technological developments with e‑procurement power frameworks, and provides a public sector client with knowledge to realize new power relationships at the publicprivate interface through the remodelling and restyling of its e‑procurement arrangements.

In e‑government context, trust plays a vital role in helping citizens overcome perceived risks. Trust makes citizens comfortable sharing personal information, make online government transaction, and acting on e‑ Government advices. Thus, trust is a significant notion that should be critically investigated to help both researchers and practitioners to understand citizens' acceptance to e‑Government. Prior research in trust has focused mainly on consumer's trust in e‑Commerce. Most of existing literatures on trust in e‑government focus on technical perspective such as PKI. This paper contributes by proposing a conceptual model of citizens' trust in e‑ Government. The proposed conceptual model of citizens' trust in e‑government is integrated constructs from multiple disciplines: psychology, sociology, e‑commerce, and HCI. The research is aimed also to develop items in order to measure the theoretical constructs in the proposed model. The pool of items is generated based on literature review. Q‑Methodology has been utilised to validate the generated measurement items. The outcome of two Q‑sorting rounds resulted in developing a survey instrument for proposed model with an excellent validity and reliability statistical results.

Abstract: E‑government (e‑gov) has become indispensable for government modernization. Its success, however, is contingent upon its adoption by the intended users. This research used an extended version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Tech nology (UTAUT) model to investigate a number of factors that are believed to affect the Kuwaiti citizens adoption of the traffic violation e‑payment system (TVEPS). Effort expectancy and social influence were found to influence the use intention, and users Internet experience moderated such a relationship. However, performance expectancy did not influence the intention to use TVEPS. Facilitating condition, trust and use intention were found to influence the actual use of the system. While gender mod erated the relationship between facilitating conditions and actual use of the system, awareness moderated the relationship of trust and use intention with the actual use of the system. These findings and their implications are further discussed in the pap er.

Until now, explanations of citizens’ online behaviors in the Western world have been scarce, with accounts of analyses of citizens’ behaviors in authoritarian governance regimes in the East being even scarcer. This study contributes to the understanding of which factors contribute to citizens’ use of social media in state‑citizen communication patterns in authoritarian governance regimes, with a focus on Chinese citizens’ use of Sina Weibo microblogs. Based on the analysis of 1572 questionnaires collected from citizens living in Hunan (People’s Republic of China), the study quantifies the factors that impact (1) Chinese citizens’ intentions to use Sina Weibo and (2) actual use of Sina Weibo in state‑citizen communication patterns. Results indicate that peer pressure and trust in individual civil servants positively impacts use of Government Sina Weibo microblogs by citizens, anxiety negatively impacts citizens’ use, whereas institutional trust does not explain citizens’ use. Use intentions mediate the relations between respectively peer pressure and interpersonal trust in officials, and actual use. The study contributes to the literature on trust and anxiety (especially in the Chinese society) in relation to the use of microblogging by Chinese government, and adds to our understanding of the role of microblogging in state‑citizen communication patterns in authoritarian governance regimes in general, and in the Chinese governance system in particular.

This paper assesses the assertion that there is a lack of well understood and developed rules and models for ethical behaviour in e‑Government. A framework is proposed to evaluate the extent to which types of moral wrongdoing are related specifically to the technologies used. It identifies four categories of ethical issues: those related to electronic environments; those dependent on electronic environments; those determined by electronic environments; and those specific to electronic environments. Furthermore, it suggests the policy perspectives, which governments may need to consider.

Knowledge sharing processes and an appropriate infrastructure are key elements to successful Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives but culture is paramount. In a public sector context, where organisational structures tend to be hierarchical and complex, implementing effective KM is a difficult task. Central to the success of such initiatives are culture, trust, loyalty or solidarity and a supportive communication climate.