Abstract
Although France is usually classified as a digital “follower” rather than a “leader,” its public authorities at various levels have taken significant steps to promote ICT infrastructure and applications. The purpose of this chapter is to examine French government ICT strategies at the national level, to provide an overview of local e-government trends and determinants in a random sample of cities across seven regions, and to present an in-depth case analysis of e-government and e-democracy in Bordeaux.
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Notes
- 1.
The French refer to their politico-administrative system as the “millefeuille,” in reference to a multi-layered pastry.
- 2.
A recent official report noted (Lebreton, 2013, p. 17) that public officials recognized that they had to modernize, but saw ICTs not as a revolution, but as a wave to be channeled and mastered.
- 3.
Users expect around-the-clock access to public services based on their experience with private sector commerce and their knowledge of practices in advanced municipalities. In a 2012 survey, 82 % of respondents with access to the Internet in Aquitaine and 62 % in France used it for e-administration, the same % age as those who use the Internet for e-commerce (AEC, 2013).
- 4.
The nomenclature is changing in 2014; large French cities and their surrounding communities will be designated as “metropolitan areas.”
- 5.
Translated by author from “Bordeaux cherche son identité numérique,” www.sudouest.fr, 10/3/2013, accessed 12/31/2013.
- 6.
There was a brief interruption in his mandate from 2004 to 2006 when he was excluded from French politics due to a conviction for mishandling public funds in Jacques Chirac’s mayoral campaign in Paris.
- 7.
French local politicians may not use municipal resources for campaign purposes; great care is taken in the year prior to the election to be sure that information is not explicitly aimed at gaining votes.
- 8.
A large segment of the city, specifically its eighteenth century buildings, became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2011, sparking an explosion in tourism.
- 9.
- 10.
On Bordeaux’s Open Data portal, 80 data sets are available as of 2014. Most of the data seem fairly uninteresting (number of marriages per day since 1933, the most popular first names of babies born in city hospitals by year, the location of public garbage cans, etc.) and some datasets are incomplete. At the local level, the reality of Open Data is much more prosaic than we might imagine.
- 11.
A recent comparative study (Logica and Pierre Audoin Consultants, 2011) reported that 17 % of the sample of administrative personnel surveyed in France thought the Internet would be an important channel of communication with citizens in 2016, compared to 43 % of the Dutch sample and 33 % of the English and German samples.
- 12.
Out of a total population of 236,000, only about 1500 are registered for the site 4 years after its inception.
- 13.
For example, while most French municipalities with a web presence have a Facebook page, they use it mainly to make announcements, repeating content from the municipal web sites, rather than to interact with the public.
- 14.
Norris and Reddick (2013) come to similar conclusions in their study of e-government and e-democracy in American localities.
- 15.
At the same time, compared to the “classical” estimate of between 10 and 15 % of the population as politically active, this might represent a significant improvement. There is also the question of rising generations’ preferences.
References
Aquitaine Europe Communication. (2013). Pénétration et appropriation du numérique dans les ménages aquitains en 2012.
Bordeaux Convention Bureau. (2014). Retrieved January 6, 2014, from http://www.bordeauxconventionbureau.fr
Gilles, L., & Marchandise, J.-F., Directors. (2013). Le Dynamique d’Internet Prospective 2030. Étude pour le Commissariat Général à la Stratégie et à la Prospective. Paris: Foundation Internet Nouvelle Génération. Retrieved March 22, 2014, from http://www.fing.org
Lebreton, C. (2013). Les Territoires Numériques de la France de Demain. Rapport à la Ministère de l’Égalité des Territoires et du Logement, Cecile Duflot. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://www.strategie.gouv.fr
Logica and Pierre Audoin Consultants. (2011). Étude menée auprès de 180 fonctionnaires en France, Angleterre, Allemagne, Pays Bas, Suède et Finlande. (Cited in Lebreton, 2013, p. 118).
Norris, D. F., & Reddick, C. G. (2013). Local e-government in the United States: Transformation or incremental change? Public Administration Review, 73(1), 165–175.
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Wohlers, T.E., Bernier, L.L. (2016). France. In: Setting Sail into the Age of Digital Local Government. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 21. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7665-9_6
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