The development of e-government stagnates in many countries. In this chapter we explore three different explanations for the difficulties of this type of innovation in the public sector. The first explanation concerns technological barriers and we conclude that these barriers are present but fast technological developments can be expected do deal with it. The second explanation concerns organizational barriers but these barriers cannot explain the overall stagnation of e-government innovations. The third explanation relates to institutional barriers and we conclude that these barriers may be difficult to overcome. We conclude that e-government should be seen as an institutional innovation. Following this conclusion we stress that institutional innovation may have undesired effects: technology may change the meaning of government and hollow out fundamental values. Therefore, we call for a public debate on the institutional innovation of government.