Our age has definite and multiple adjectives to depict it. The descriptive words vary from the information age to the period where media, technology, and digital profiles channel together to the public value. But the latter, with the different propositions of our age, stays the most omnipresent structure of society. In the mere sense, the public or citizens nowadays focus on a language and typology, an ICT-focused speech. But on the other side, new adjectives are rising on the phenomenon of governments. And also vary from open governments to collaborative governments and governments as a platform. These transformations in the meanings of the entities we live in figure out an innovative role for individuals and which we sustain at Anath Foundation.
Moreover, a question resonates from the understanding and implementation of these initiatives concerned about governments models and proposals. The big question is how the public as a value transmits a meaning out of their knowledge of the government, transmits it to others, and translates it through their realistic day-to-day approaches. The answer to this question lies between the two entities, e-government and municipal modernization, that hold these meanings to the surface. However, citizens retain the most valuable resources to change the directions inside the governance models and how practical entities like municipalities take the lead. Hence, further transformations point us to unimagined opportunities for citizens and, simultaneously, for regulating assets and efficiencies in municipal modernization—all happening through the e-government services and technologies.
Municipal Modernization holds within its structure diverse sections of efficiencies and progressions. The municipal framework depends on an outline that fulfills the gaps for local municipalities, whether in data security, asset management, or granting money for municipal upgrading. In the last four years, budgets range around $125 millions for local municipalities to upgrade their tech services. These integrations consider a revised platform for citizens, which raises the margin for effortless and operational planning. However, the difference in the formation of the government modifies the roles of citizens. They become more active and focused on other practices. Anath foundation states that the e-government’s ultimate goal is to bring government services closer to citizens. Hence, the role of citizens begins with the two entities and demands a new space that formulates a new meaning for the relationship between citizens and government.
Likewise, the newly developed relationship recommends engagement from citizens before democracy as a legal system. It requires space for citizens’ production and resource contribution. However, an active citizen-government connection intends to have a value-centered perspective with decision-making at the hands of the citizens. Hence, the citizens acquire higher responsibilities, but through these practices, citizens can discover themselves, find their strengths, and build an ability to invest in the new digital profile of governments. The new technologies provide harm or good, and the choice remains to the citizens who engage with the society, explore and make decisions. The new governance model develops a rational relationship from the stance of citizens, who need to take awareness as the needle of a compass.
Practical and definite examples of e-government can take the shape of valuable day-to-day tasks, like e-permits, birth certificates, building permits, business licenses, and death certificates. These hint at the formal constitution of technological advancements in the modern meaning of collaborative governance. Therefore, citizens transmit their own earned sense of their relationship with the government to others, and through this approach, individuals become more functional. This descriptive state of citizens enhances the stability of the governance system and, to the utmost, brings innovation and social sustainability.