Local democratic values and e-government: barrier or promoter? A case study of a multicultural Swedish municipality

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand the significance of local democratic core values for the introduction of e-government reforms (public e-services) in a multicultural Swedish municipality with a strong tradition of developing democratic processes and responsiveness to citizen needs. We conclude that the democratic core values in the municipality have acted both as promoter and facilitator of public e-services. Despite the strong economic rationale of e-services, the local democratic values prevail and have advocated e-service developments. This illustrates how locally defined values have a fundamental role in legitimizing and defining the purpose of e-services in the community where they are implemented. However, we also conclude that public e-services, in their present form, could lead to a hollowing out of the local democratic values.