Between technology and institutions: features of forming e-government in volgograd region

The author analyzes the processes of development of e-Government in the Volgograd region taking into account the transformation of global strategies for its evaluation and the increasing importance of participatory social interaction. The analysis is based on the data of sociological surveys of Volgograd residents, the results of a formal assessment of the information infrastructure of the regional e-Government, the synthesis of state statistics and statistics of the regional portal of state and municipal services conducted in 2015-2017.The structure of this research paper includes the justification of methodological guidelines for the study of local e-Government practices, description of the main stages, features and results of the introduction of e-Government technology in the Volgograd region, the analysis of institutional problems of its development.E-Government is considered in the context of three methodological postulates: the idea of e-Government as the best governance (e-Participation); the idea of e-Governance as a set of socio-managerial and technological innovations that ensure the benefits of informatization and digitalization for the public good; the idea of e-Government as a tool / mechanism for the development of e-Democracy and support for social initiatives and projects based on participatory interaction.Local e-Government practices are considered as management practices and actions; as decisions aimed at implementing social and technological innovations and emerging under the influence of global and national strategy; as the content of administrative policies of the executive authorities of the region and municipalities related to strategic and current management tasks. Depending on the management policy and the results of its implementation the author defines and distinguishes three stages in the development of regional e-Government and common features of the process. These features include: priority development of areas related to the formation of information infrastructure and electronic public and municipal services; mobilization type of implementation of social and managerial innovations; the prevalence of “vertical integration” over “horizontal contingence” and organizational and managerial decisions over strategic decisions. In general, the electronic government of the Volgograd region is “e-Government for the population”, and “e-Government for business” is just beginning to form.