Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Advance Access originally published online on October 11, 2006
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 2007 17(3):379-404; doi:10.1093/jopart/mul013
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E-Government and Bureaucracy: Toward a Better Understanding of Intranet Implementation and Its Effect on Red Tape
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Kansas
Address correspondence to the author at ewwelch{at}uic.edu.
This article examines the interaction between bureaucratic red tape and intranet usage in state human service agencies. We propose a sociotechnical model for the relationship between intranet usage and bureaucratic red tape that takes into account the complexities of causal linkages including bidirectional causal relationships and a range of internal and external influences. This model is tested with data from the National Administrative Studies Project, Phase II. While we are not able to corroborate the "demand pull" hypothesis advanced by Bretschneider and colleagues, we do find support for its corollary (the "technology push" hypothesis) indicating that intranet usage is associated with reduction in red tape. This finding on the salutary effect of intranet usage holds for both a global measure of red tape and a more specific procurement red tape measure. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings.
We are grateful to Carolyn Heinrich and the journal's four anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions. Data analyzed in this article were collected under the auspices of the NASP-II, a project supported in part by the Forum for Policy Research and Public Service at Rutgers University and under a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Center for State Health Policy, also at Rutgers University. Naturally, this support does not necessarily imply an endorsement of analyses and opinions in the article.