Development Innovation: Comparison of Digital Government Pathways in Estonia and Thailand

Abstract

The three objectives of this article were 1) to conduct a comparative study of Estonia's approach to digital government development compared to Thailand, 2) to analyze the success of Estonia's digital government development approach, and 3) to suggest digital government development guidelines for Thailand. The main findings of this article were as follows. First, the process of development towards a digital government in the case of Estonia began to emerge in the early 1990s, with the government acting as the main driver of the development process. It was found that Estonia's digital government development process was divided into three phases, with Phase 1 comprising development-initiated states, Phase 2 comprising development states, and Phase 3 being developed states. Second, success in building and developing a digital government in the case of Estonia involved state-led development ideology and development networks playing a significant part in ensuring success in the process of creating and developing a digital government. Lastly, recommendations for Thailand's digital government development approach can be divided into 3 levels, including 1) the governmental level, which must play a leading role in the development of a digital government, incorporating the formulation of Thailand's digital government development plan by social conditions in the context of Thailand, 2) the network level, which requires building a network of governance from various sectors to drive Thailand's digital government development plan, and 3) the citizen level, at which digital citizenship is created through the education system to absorb and create so-called digital citizenship in line with Thailand's digital government development plan.