ISSN 1479-436-9X
©Academic Conferences Ltd
Reference this paper as:
Arslan, A. (2007) “Turkish Local e-Governments: a Longitudinal Study” The Electronic Journal of e-Government Volume
5 Issue 2, pp 95 - 106, available online at www.ejeg.com
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Turkish Local e-Governments: a Longitudinal Study
Aykut Arslan,
Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey
dtraykutarslan@gmail.com
Abstract : This article is based on a longitudinal exploratory study of the Turkish local e-governments between
September 2005 and December 2006. 3,228 Turkish local governments constitute the sampling framework of this paper.
The first part of the study, which took place in 2005, indicated that only 969 authorities were online. But the second part,
issued at the end of 2006, showed that 1,591 units were online. The purpose of the second study was to explore the
degree of change and how this change occurs in a certain time line among those authorities. Despite some theoretical
studies in this field, no research was held on local e-governments, particularly, in a longitudinal dimension in Turkey.
That’s why this study is unique in terms of covering the overall picture of the local activity on the topic of e-government.
Keywords: Turkish e-governments (e-Government), Turkish local e-governments (e-Government), e-municipality, e-
administration, Turkish local governments, e-Turkey.
1. Introduction
e-government, contrary to common belief, is not solely a new hype of the “e-“s. Nor is it a “new emergent
area of research in the discipline of public management” (Criado et al., 2003: 3). Actually, it is an intersection
of such multidisciplinary areas as organization theory, social science, informatics, computer science, public
administration, business administration, economy, political science, law, government professionals, library
science and so forth. (Löfstedt, 2005: 5).
Today, the explosive growth in Internet usage accompanied by rapid development of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) and e-commerce/e-bus