This chapter uses data manually collected from all 473 municipal websites of this size to examine the characteristics of digital policy governance and its influence on service provision. It categorizes the population of smaller medium-sized municipalities according to a typology of organizational structures and introduces the digital policy index. The index aggregates data on the availability and complexity of online services. Findings indicate that smaller medium-sized municipalities tend to have medium-low availability of online services, while medium-high availability is also relatively common. Very low service provision is rare, and a very high level of service availability is extremely rare. Regarding the governance of digital policy, nearly two-thirds of municipalities lack an organizational structure with a clear mandate for digitalization. Among those municipalities that do have such structures, digitalization departments are the most prevalent, followed by digitalization officers, interdepartmental digitalization teams, and interdepartmental digitalization officers. Line approaches to the governance of digital policy are more common than cross-sectional approaches at this size. Teams are also more frequently responsible for digitalization than individuals. E-government services are significantly more widespread than e-participation offerings. The study identifies significant correlations between organizational structures and digital policy index scores, providing evidence that governance plays a crucial role. The presence of highly institutionalized organizational structures for digitalization correlates with better online service provision. However, not all highly institutionalized structures yield the same effects, underscoring the importance of a nuanced consideration of organizational structures.

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The Digitalization of Smaller Medium-Sized Municipalities: A Quantitative Perspective

  • Tomás Vellani

摘要

This chapter uses data manually collected from all 473 municipal websites of this size to examine the characteristics of digital policy governance and its influence on service provision. It categorizes the population of smaller medium-sized municipalities according to a typology of organizational structures and introduces the digital policy index. The index aggregates data on the availability and complexity of online services. Findings indicate that smaller medium-sized municipalities tend to have medium-low availability of online services, while medium-high availability is also relatively common. Very low service provision is rare, and a very high level of service availability is extremely rare. Regarding the governance of digital policy, nearly two-thirds of municipalities lack an organizational structure with a clear mandate for digitalization. Among those municipalities that do have such structures, digitalization departments are the most prevalent, followed by digitalization officers, interdepartmental digitalization teams, and interdepartmental digitalization officers. Line approaches to the governance of digital policy are more common than cross-sectional approaches at this size. Teams are also more frequently responsible for digitalization than individuals. E-government services are significantly more widespread than e-participation offerings. The study identifies significant correlations between organizational structures and digital policy index scores, providing evidence that governance plays a crucial role. The presence of highly institutionalized organizational structures for digitalization correlates with better online service provision. However, not all highly institutionalized structures yield the same effects, underscoring the importance of a nuanced consideration of organizational structures.