CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Agatayeva, Saule |
|---|---|
| Title | Internet freedom and e-government: the contradictory impact of the ict revolution on democracy |
| Summary | Information and communication technology can help form public opinion and promote democracy, but it can also strengthen authoritarian regimes. A growing number of countries around the world has invested in e-government. This may be a positive development in itself, but it should not be mistaken for political liberalization, let alone for signs of impending democratization without this bringing democracy any closer. This thesis examines the nexus between internet freedom and e-government. A case study of Kazakhstan demonstrates the gap between e-government (highly developed) and internet freedom (largely absent) in an authoritarian state that strategically uses ICT to enhance its performance legitimacy. The analysis demonstrates variations in the relationship between e-government and Internet freedom across countries. The puzzling issue is that authoritarian states have high levels of e-government implementation and high levels of repressive Internet freedom, which is not common to democracies. Interestingly, from the analysis we can see that some authoritarian states: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela do invest in e-government. Hence, they lead in the UN rankings with high level of e-government projects, but make no improvements in either ICT channels or democracy. |
| Supervisor | Bogaards, Matthijs; |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/agatayeva_saule.pdf |
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