E-government and empowerment: impacts on equal access to information and developing public language

AuthorAli A. Pourezzat/Mostafa Nejati/Mehran Nejati
PositionUniversity of Tehran, Iran/University of Tehran, Iran/Yazd University, Iran
Pages123-127

Page 123

Introduction

In order to empower people, there is a need for an approach which considers all people and their needs, in different eras and arenas. A good example for such a solution is language. Language has a public feature that enables it to be used by everyone. On the other hand, it seems that e-government and information technology creates a new language that will be opposed to next generations. As a result, the nature of poverty and wealth will change in future. Therefore, governments should pay much attention to this reality, and consider it in their public policies on development programs.

There is an idea that e-government transition can be accelerated when the public can speak the information technology language (Pourezzat, 2007). The development of IT language affects the public empowerment, and vice versa. So, governments should provide opportunities for more equal access to information through e-government, in order to empower their citizens.

Page 124

Language, knowledge, and empowerment

Knowledge has become the main source of power in today life. However, access to it, and its development greatly depends on the language and information processing. People should know the right language in order to acquire information and use it effectively as a way to develop new progress opportunities, and affect others. Empowerment is a process through which people gain a momentum to actively participate in different social life arenas, demand their own rights, use the opportunities to make progress, and develop their capabilities to acquire required knowledge. Empowerment means having the right and opportunity to select from among various options. That is, people can decide how to live.

Every decision making needs information, and e-government can facilitate access to it. Decision making can affect the success and failures of people in their lives and can result to their being poor or wealthy. Hong and Padney (2007, p. 27) research show that level of education, Job training, and health conditions affect the likelihood of being poor. Human endeavor in order to eradicate poverty and empower poor people has not been completely successful as it was planned. In analyzing and fighting poverty, the determination of causes of poverty is key (World Bank, 2000). It is not enough to find out who is poor, we also need to examine why they are poor. In order to determine the...

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