On the Narratives and Background Narratives of e-Government

Abstract

In this paper, key narratives within the field of e-government are identified by conducting a thematic analysis of the top 100 most cited e-government papers (plus an additional 20 from 2018-2019). The identified narratives that emerged from this analysis are: the democratic, technocratic, and the tech-savvy narrative, plus the implementation (pseudo) narrative. This paper explores and provides theoretical reflections on these narratives by anchoring them in established background paradigms, such as open society and new public management.