Theorizing E-Governance: A Review of the World Bank’s 3-Stage Model Versus the Model of PC Utilization

Over the recent decades, governments, both in the global north and the global south, have been undergoing and continue to counter several challenges in delivering services to citizens given the ever-burgeoning human population interposed with/by escalating community demands as well as rapid urbanization. A few of these challenges have been addressed through better scientific innovation and digitization of governance. Even though there are several models through which digital governance can be executed, in this paper, we have made a comparative review of two models (the World Bank’s 3-stage model and the PC utilization model) with the view of unpackaging the intricacies involved in each and how they have been addressed. We have exposed the parallels between the two models with perceptions drawn from the environments of governments in the global south before presenting potential interventions. Our central view emerged from our own practical experiences drawn from our places of work that are largely rural-based, and knowing that, while Uganda boosts of promoting a comparatively higher number of municipalities to city-status within a short period, the situation in those cities remains, almost, semi-rural or sub-urban and so, digital governance presents rather unvarying challenges entwined in ruralism. While we did not present particular cases due to dearth of primary studies, our arguments can be supportive in guiding the country’s policy makers as they contend with a pseudo-digital governance phase.