Democratic Revival or E-sell Out? a Sceptic's Report on the State of E-governance in the Uk

Readers are reminded that this work is protected by copyright. While they are free to use the ideas expressed in it, they may not copy, distribute or publish the work or part of it, in any form, printed, electronic or otherwise, except for reasonable quoting, clearly indicating the source. Readers are permitted to make copies, electronically or printed, for personal and classroom use. 1. Introduction and Methodological Preliminaries This paper is based on the national report for the UK in the e-government session of the World Congress on Comparative Law in Utrecht 2006. To incorporate some of the critical discussions at the conference and to enhance readability, the questionnaire has been rather loosely incorporated into this account. Comparing e-governance poses a range of methodological challenges. Some of them will be discussed in the context of specific issues in this report. However, as these methodological problems informed some decisions regarding structure and emphasis of this report, we want to start with a short outline of the methodological problems that were encountered during our research, and how they have been addressed.