Electronic government and socioeconomic development in the municipalities of the state of Paraná

Abstract

Electronic government is a practice with strategic dimension in the most diverse situations from core countries to the smallest municipalities or districts of peripheral countries. The contemporary public administration relies on it for service innovation and the fulfilment of its role of socioeconomic dynamism mediator. However, the implementation of the e-Gov in Brazil presents differences that reveal the dynamic integration and lethargic marginalities that lead the country to the worsening of its inequalities. Challenged by such scenery, this paper investigates the relation between the availability of electronic government services and the socioeconomic development, wealth production, population and revenue in 398 city halls in the State of Parana. The research uses open data and documental analysis to investigate the adhesion of municipalities to the e-Gov practices and their correlation with the variables IFDM (Brazilian acronym for Municipal Development FIRJAN Index), VAB (Brazilian acronym for Gross Value Added), revenue and estimated population. The results are consistent and reveal relations and differences depending on the size of the municipalities researched, indicating the need for incentives to the universalization of the e-Gov.