Ideas about E-government sometimes amount to not a great deal more than ‘Government-as-usual + IT’; perhaps the 21^st century version of the old Leninist slogan ‘Communism = Soviet power + Electrification’. The more incisive commentators and researchers on E-Government – such as those planned for inclusion in this collection – understand that ideas about harnessing the power and potential of ICT are far more complex. To paraphrase the words of Stafford Beer, the question which asks how to use ICT in government is the wrong question; a better formulation is to ask how government should be run given the existence of ICT. The best version of all is the question asking, given ICT, what is the nature of government?

Even this, however, fails to get to grips with the context against which all this is taking place. The very nature of government and the role of the state are altering. The current socio-political context has been variously labelled – the information age, the knowledge society, the digital economy, and the informational form of capitalism. Yet these all fail to encapsulate one of the key aspects of contemporary society: Constant and continuously unpredictable change on a global scale but with local and specific impacts. The recent work of Bauman, Beck, Giddens and Sennett amongst others offers a valuable resource against which issues such as E-Government can be understood. This chapter will outline the relevant aspects of what Bauman has termed liquid modernity and the ways in which strategies for E-Government need to take account of this ever-changing socio-political formation.