ABSTRACT
In the recent public management and governance literature, e-government and citizens engagement are given high prominence. Both e-government and citizens engagement are considered to have the potential to deal with several problems at the same time: to improve the quality of public services, and to revive democracy through enhanced citizen participation. Policy makers in Western democracies appear united in the belief that citizen participation offers an important means of rebuilding trust in government and ensuring that services are responsive to users' needs and aspirations. In both Western and Eastern Europe, pressure for increased engagement has been fuelled by low levels of trust. Modern information and communication technologies are considered to offer a new opportunity to make various forms of feedback from citizens more cost-effective and to reach out to citizens who are more sympathetic towards electronic communication as compared to traditional forms of interaction.
