Scarcity, exit, voice and violence: the state seen through egovernment

Abstract

This paper examines if, and how, the manner in which the state is viewed changes when an e-government system is implemented. The motivation for this paper lies in the fact that the nature of the state is under-theorised in e-government literature. The state, in a developing country context, is formulated as being scarce, presenting choices of exit and voice to citizens, and of having authority over violence. A specific grievance registration system from India, called Lokvani, is used as an example to show the effect of the system on how residents of that region view the state. Field data collected from participant interviews of those interacting with the system is analysed. The results show that the nature of the state changes when the system is used, however, for some aspects it remains the same. Further, the paper concludes that it is imperative to have a formal theory of the state for evaluating and designing e-government systems.