E-Governance and Political Modernization: an Empirical Study Based on the East and Southeast Asia from 2003 to 2014

Abstract

This study aims to make it clear that whether E-governance matters for political modernization in East and Southeast Asia. Specifically, there are two main questions in this study. First, to what extent E-governance matters for political modernization in East and Southeast Asia? Second, what is the aspect or factor that has the greatest impact on political modernization in this region? According to the literature review, E-governance can be operated to three elements, which are “open data”, “online service” and “E-participation”. Political modernization also can be divided into three elements, which are the government’s transparency, the offline political participation and the level of liberty. Using second-hand data from UN database, TI (Transparency International) and V-dem, this study draws such conclusions. 1. The development of E-governance will lead to the improvement of political modernization in East and Southeast Asia. Specifically, open data has a positive impact on the government’s transparency. E-participation has a positive impact on the offline political participation and the level of liberty. 2. It is difficult to confirm what is the element that has the most important influence on political modernization, for these three elements have an impact on the different aspects of political modernization. Overall, this paper proofs that Egovernance has a positive effect on political modernization in East and Southeast Asia and confirms the importance of E-participation. With the continuous improvement of Eparticipation in this region, ordinary people will aware the importance of political participation and regard this as essential political rights of themselves. So that the improvement of political participation in this region is worth looking forward to.