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Information technology has become one of the core elements of managerial reform, and electronic government te-government) may figure prominently in future governance. This study is designed to examine the rhetoric and reality of e-government at the municipal level. Using data obtained from the 2000 E-government Survey conducted by International City/County Management Association and Public Technologies Inc., the article examines the current state of municipal e-government implementation and assesses its perceptual effectiveness. This study also explores two institutional factors (size and type of government) that contribute to the adoption of e-government among municipalities. Overall, this study concludes that e-government has been adopted by many municipal governments, but it is still at an early stage and has not obtained many of expected outcomes (cost savings, downsizing, etc.) that the rhetoric of e-government has promised. The study suggests there are some widely shared barriers (lack of financial, technical, and personnel capacities) and legal issues (such as privacy) to the progress of municipal e-government. This study also indicates that city size and manager-council government are positively associated with the adoption of a municipal Web site as well as the longevity of the Web site.
Introduction
Information technology (IT) has become one of the core elements of managerial reform, and electronic government (e-government) may figure prominently in future governance. IT has opened up many possibilities for improving internal managerial efficiency and the quality of public service delivery to citizens. IT has contributed to dramatic changes in politics (Nye 1999; Norris 1999), government institutions (Fountain 2001), performance management (Brown 1999), red tape reduction (Moon and Bretschneider 2002), and re-engineering (Anderson 1999) during the last decade. The Clinton administration attempted to advance e-government, through which government overcomes the barriers of time and distance in providing public services (Gore 1993). Recently, some studies have found widespread diffusion of various IT innovations (mainframe and PC computers, geographical systems, networks, Web pages, etc.) in the public sector (Cats-Baril and Thompson 1995; Ventura 1995; Nedovic-Budic and Godschalk 1996; Norris and Kraemer 1996; Weare, Musso, and Hale 1999; Musso, Weare, and Hale 2000; Landsbergen and Wolken 2001; Layne and Lee 2001; Nunn 2001; Peled 2001). On June 24, 2000, President Clinton delivered his first Webcasted address to the public and announced a series of new e-government...