The focus of the project is on the application of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to modernise public administration. The discussions on "e-democracy" and "e-government" which have up to now taken place relatively independently of each other are, for the purpose of analysing the re-organisation of administration, bundled together into the vision of "e-governance", and two perspectives are combined:

• On the one hand, the public sector is being confronted with demands for rationalisation and "slimming", for instance as these are being discussed in the context of "new public management".
• On the other hand, there are high hopes concerning the potential of the Internet for democratisation. At the centre of these discussions are the new opportunities for participation in politics.

The project is concerned with the question whether, and in which way, these demands lead to a new guiding vision for administration, in which the bureaucratic, hierarchical, formalised and citizen-remote forms of organisation are being replaced by networked, decentralised, flexible, transparent forms which are close to the citizen. From this viewpoint, there are three main areas of analysis:

• The re-organisation of the political process to develop new forms of the involvement of citizens in processes of political decision-making.
• The rationalisation of the manner of work and the restructuring of administration in the direction of a modern, networked, decentralised, flexible and efficient organisation.
• The redesign of the relationship of the administration to citizens with the aim of involving these more in the administrative process.

The subject of investigation is the use of the Internet as an instrument for rationalisation and democratisation of the administration and the changes in forms of interaction between the administration and citizens, which are increasingly emerging on the basis of electronically mediated communication.

The project makes use of the following instruments for research: Literature review, case studies, expert interviews and user survey. From a comparative perspective, ""good practice" for the modernisation of administration is identified and the conditions and opportunities for their transfer are indicated.