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Government Information Quarterly

Volume 15, Number 4, 1998

CONTENTS

DISCUSSION FORUM

The Impact of the National Performance Review and Other Forces
on the Rights of an Informed Citizenry: A Case Study in
Reinvention--Reforming Government Publishing
Eric C. Peterson .......................................................................................... 383

ARTICLES

Chinese Economic Development, Rule of Law, and the Internet
Henry H. Perritt, Jr. and Randolph R. Clarke ............................................ 393

Government on the Web: A Comparison between
the United States and New Zealand
Peter Hernon .............................................................................................................. 419

REVIEWS ....................................................................................................... 445

About the Authors ............................................................................................... 453

Index ................................................................................................................. 454

DISCUSSION FORUM

The Impact of the National Performance Review and Other Forces
on the Rights of an Informed Citizenry: A Case Study in
Reinvention--Reforming Government Publishing

Eric C. Peterson

Title 44 of the United States Code, containing the law governing the printing, publication, dissemination, and access to government publications, was written over 100 years ago. In the past decade, this law has come under attack, undermining the ability of the American citizenry to be fully informed about the activities of the federal government. This article examines the needed reforms to Title 44 and other legislative initiatives required to ensure the right of the citizenry to be informed.

Henry H. Perritt, Jr. and Randolph R. Clarke

The Internet and its World Wide Web (Web) have an important role to play in the economic development of China, The government of the People's Republic of China has declared its intention to open opportunities for foreign trade and investment in China. Part of the commitment is a commitment to rule of law. Rule of law acceptable to commercial interests requires transparency and decisional rationality. These two features can be realized most quickly by connecting legal institutions through the Internet's Web to bodies of information commercial law, thus creating a virtual library for Chinese legal decision makers, and using the Web as a quick and cheap electronic publishing technology for Chinese legal decision makers. As a result, their statutes, rules, and decisional law become available to commercial interests. But technology is not enough. Innovative cross-cultural exchange programs aimed at the legal managerial and Web-master professions will round out this rule of law support for commercial globalization.

Peter Hernon

This article discusses the approach of two national governments to the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) as a means for providing information and other resources to the public. Each country has a view of information management and information delivery through the WWW. The United States links the actions of agencies to a strategic planning process involving the use of performance indicators, whereas New Zealand has a lesser commitment to information dissemination. Performance indicators reflecting a customer's perspective can apply to U.S. government WWW sites, thereby improving the public's right-to-know, open government, and public access. The article identifies future directions for research and evaluation, and illustrates that government information for both countries need not appear in textual form.