E-Government and its ability to reduce corruption - The case of Estonia

Abstract: Developing an e-government in a state is a new thinking. One of the main priorities of the new European Commission is developing a strong interconnected e-government system inside the European Union. Beside of its cost-efficient benefits, e-government can play an important part in reducing corruption as well. As most of the countries in the world are fighting with corruption, e-government can be seen as a new way of doing it. E-government is thought to reduce corruption through increased transparency, better accountability, disappearance of the “middle-man” and bridging the gap between public workers and citizens. This paper tries to find out why e-government can decrease corruption by analysing these four factors in a selected case – notably Estonia. The used material consists of different statistics from Eurostat, Estonian Statistics, Transparency International, World Bank, as well as reports and secondary sources. The outcome of the analysis suggests, that the most effective factor seems to be the disappearance of the “middle-man”, which is being followed by the increase in transparency and trust in governments, whereas accountability has remained constant throughout the years when e-government initiatives in Estonia has been developed.