Theoretical and legal aspects of the digital state and e-government

The digital state and e-government, as elements of digitalization, are concepts and practices that require theoretical and legal understanding and description, since they contain the most important concepts of the science of theory of state and law. For empirical proof of the existence of these phenomena, examples of their manifestation in various spheres of legal life in recent years, reflected in scientific publications, are shown. Purpose: to determine the ratio of the digital state and e-government with each other and with such categories of theory of state and law as the concept of state, type of state, form of state, state functions, state mechanism (apparatus). Methods: logical method of induction, empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation are used. A special scientific formal legal method is used. Results: the digital state and e-government are generally recognized as identical phenomena, but the former can coexist as a virtual phenomenon with the state in the classical sense; the basis for the classification of states should include the indices of development of e-government in them; the digital state is not a type of state and does not belong to the forms of government and state structure; e-government is an important form of performing state functions and an element of its mechanism that manifests itself positively, including during the coronavirus pandemic; ways to develop e-democracy are proposed.