Proactive e-Governance: Flipping the service delivery model from pull to push in Taiwan

Abstract Governments are well on their way to realizing many of the efficiency gains and administrative improvements promised by traditional e-government. Leveraging this mature infrastructure, Taiwan and other leading implementers have begun to explore ways to harness IT innovations beyond efficiency to also alter how government delivers services and solves public problems. Accordingly, Taiwan's fourth e-government strategy includes a notable commitment to “proactive” service and information delivery. The aim is to flip the service delivery model by shifting from the “pull” approach of traditional e-government—whereby the citizen must seek out government services—towards a “push” model, whereby government proactively and seamlessly delivers just-in-time services to citizens shaped around their individual needs, preferences, circumstance, and location. The article explores Taiwan's implementation of this new approach through three case studies. From this, the authors extract common trends and characteristics to articulate a consolidated framework for Proactive e-Governance based on citizen-centricity, data-driven personalization, and the empowerment of frontline civil servants. The article concludes with a discussion on the importance of shared global learning as leading e-governments simultaneously seek to uncover new models for governance in the 21st century.