Information, Communication & Society

Goverance and electronic innovation: whither the information polity?
John A. Taylor

Abstract: Governments have taken shape universally through their creation and use of institutional structures of the State, yet it is the perceived failure of these institutions that has, of recent years, established enthusiasm for governance rather than government. Whereas government has historically been constructed within a paradigm that interprets the relationships between government and citizen in formal, constitutional terms, governance is emerging from a competing view that sees those relationships as altogether more complex and uncertain. The constitutional view interprets both government and citizen behaviour as occurring within settled and agreed boundaries. In contrast, governance replaces constitutional certainty with confusion and dilemma. It replaces secure policy outcomes and citizen satisfaction with policy failure and a 'democratic deficit', as citizens become increasingly sceptical of governments' ability to deliver their election promise. A new expectation has emerged amongst policy commentators that new governance can resolve deep policy questions where governments have previously failed. This paradigmatic shift is occurring alongside the emergence of organizational and service innovations whose provenance is usually understood by reference to the rhetoric of the Information Age. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are depicted as bringing profound changes to those aspects of organized society into which they are introduced. Thus, as governments have come to redefine their raison d'être as one which engages them primarily in governance processes, so we see the intensive application of ICTs emerging to sustain and support this paradigmatic shift. The core relationships of the contemporary polity thus become amenable to new forms of analysis, that stress the information flows, communications facilities and opportunities that characterize these core relationships. Thereby, we are provided with opportunities to explore the characteristics of the emergent 'information polity', examining as we do so these informationally- and technologically-mediated relationships that it embodies.