Information technology has become one of the core elements of managerial reform, and electronic government (e‐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.

This article asks how Internet use, citizen satisfaction with e-government, and citizen trust in government are interrelated. We first review the literature on trust and explore how radical information technologies may work to alter the production or maintenance of trust. We then develop hypotheses about how citizens' experience with e-government, satisfaction with e-government and government Web sites, and trust in government are interrelated. Moreover, the model for e-government and Web site satisfaction incorporates citizen perspectives on electronic transaction, transparency, and interactivity. Using data obtained from the Council on Excellence in Government, we then develop and test a twostage multiple-equation model that simultaneously predicts experience, satisfaction, and trust. Findings indicate that government Web site use is positively associated with e-government satisfaction and Web site satisfaction and that e-government satisfaction is positively associated with trust in government. We also find that while citizens are generally satisfied with the electronic provision of information (transparency), there is some dissatisfaction with the transaction and interactivity of Web sites. We conclude that electronic government strategies-transaction, transparency, and interactivity-are important factors that directly affect e-government satisfaction and indirectly affect trust. Individuals who use government Web sites are not only critical consumers but also demanding citizens. During the past four decades, there has been a decline of public trust in government. The decline offers tough challenges to politicians, public administrators, and citizens because it implies the loss of public confidence in political and administrative performance as well as dissatisfaction with public services.

American grassroots governments have rushed to join the e‐government revolution. Although there is a growing body of e‐government literature, little of it is empirical. Using data from two nationwide surveys, we conduct a longitudinal examination of local government adoption of e‐government, Web site sophistication, the perceived impacts of e‐government, and barriers to the adoption and sophistication of e‐government. We also discuss correlates of e‐government adoption and sophistication with selected institutional factors. We find that e‐government adoption at the grassroots is progressing rapidly (if measured solely by deployment of Web sites). However, the movement toward integrated and transactional e‐government is progressing much more slowly. Continuing research, particularly longitudinal study, is needed to monitor the evolution of e‐government among U.S. local governments, especially to keep pace with the practice and to ascertain the actual impacts of e‐government.

Governments are being put to the test as they struggle with the fast and wide spread of COVID‐19. This article discusses the compelling challenges posed by the COVID‐19 pandemic by examining how this wicked problem has been managed by the South Korean government with agile‐adaptive, transparent actions to mitigate the surge of COVID‐19. Unlike many Western countries, South Korea has been able to contain the spread of COVID‐19 without a harsh forced lockdown of the epicenter of the virus. This essay argues that an agile‐adaptive approach, a policy of transparency in communicating risk, and citizens’ voluntary cooperation are critical factors. It also suggests that the South Korean government learned costly lessons from the MERS failure of 2015. This essay suggests ways that Western countries can manage future wicked problems such as COVID‐19 without paying too much cost and maintaining quality of life in open and free societies.

This paper explores the effect of managerial innovativeness in municipal government on the adoption of e-government, and it examines the association between the adoption of e-government and its outcome. The authors posit an exploratory model: The first part of the model shows how adoption of municipal egovernment is determined by managerial innovativeness orientation, government capacity and institutional characteristics such as city size and government type. The second part suggests how e-government outcomes are associated with the adoption of e-government, government capacity and institutional characteristics. Analysing two different survey data sets of American municipal reinvention and egovernment, this study finds that managerial innovativeness orientation and city size are the most compelling determinants of municipal e-government adoption. Different levels of e-government adoption may yield different outcomes.

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