A Critical Insight into the Evaluation of e- Government Policies: Reflections on the Concept of Public Interest

Abstract–The concept of e-government was expected to support the development of the new public sector paradigm and the emerging socio-political trends, endorsing efforts for deliberative and democratic decision-making processes, and advocating the effective, accountable and transparent management of public affairs. In reality, very little of the above-mentioned was achieved, indicating that the current policy-making in the e-government field is inadequate, whereas lacking comprehensive and objective evaluation methodologies consequently results in poor quality planning and implementation of e-government policies. Despite the growing research interest in the last decade or so, the existing evaluation methodologies have been often only marginally and superficially targeting and evaluating the notion of the public interest articulated and addressed by the e-governmen