By Varun Jain

 Eyeing global competition, many authoritarian regimes are choosing to go for internet  Officials are using internet to increase transparency, reduce corruption, and make government more responsive to its citizens  Consolidation of central authority with remote provinces is more efficient with the help of internet

 Controlling internet is difficult  Leaders are suspicious of web  Public internet access could  expose population to forbidden information & images  Galvanize grass-root opposition  Growing internet users can challenge oppressive government  Internet ineluctably thwarts authoritarian regimes

 Sophisticated censorship schemes are used  Websites that the government considers political, have to be registered  Only government approved internet  Private companies are encouraged to filter content and to police users  Years of ideological conditioning and the threat of a punitive action, prevents user from crossing the boundary

 Web helps to transform authoritarianism’s modern expression  E-government initiatives can  Reshape bureaucracy, dispense education and health communication  Can increase direct communication between officials and the public  Provides the citizen of authoritarian regimes with important benefits

 eCitizen program – integrates services from several government departments and packages them in user friendly way  Interaction with public can be performed online  Visitors can file a notice for marriage, scan a roster of justices of the peace, find about pre and post marriage counseling programs, obtain list of hospitals providing genetic counseling

 Politically significant use of internet  Computerized regional government  Connected them through a national network  Country now has a central government website and 500 other government entities online  E-government initiative announced in 2001

 Developing an E-government plan  Ministers are partnering with private companies to eliminate corruption  Online procurement auctions – avoids middlemen  Municipal websites receive direct feedback from public  Government has created a domestic internet for domestic consumption

 Internet is forcing autocrats to reassess, adapt, and make critical changes  Internet being used to promote larger development goal  All china women’s federation help rural women get health information online  Egypt is promoting rural education via internet  Return to a culture of bureaucratic secrecy, unscrupulous abuse of power, and unaccountability; seems difficult