Design principles for essentially digital governance

Abstract

Governments and citizens operate in a digital environment, leaving digital trails whatever they do and wherever they go.These trails generate huge quantities of information about themselves, each other and any interactions they have.In this context, the most important elements of an organization that deals with people are the information it can access and the intelligence provided by analysis of that information.Information and intelligence generate capacity for innovation, efficiency and the agility to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.These statements are as true for public as for private organizations; most governments in the 21 st century industrialised world and beyond are reliant on a large digital presence and complex network of large-scale information systems for administrative operations and policy-making.These systems go beyond being critical for policy implementation to shaping the whole context within which policy and service delivery choices are made, either facilitating innovation or constraining policy options.Simply put, many or even most government departments and agencies 'are' their information systems and digital presence -the only part of them with which many citizens will interact (Margetts, 1999;Dunleavy, Margetts et al, 2008, Steinberg, 2012).Yet those that direct, manage and study government can find it bewildering to negotiate this rapidly changing information environment or to prioritise the interactions and feedback loops that would capitalise on the potential of the internet and digital technologies for public policy solutions and service delivery, particularly in the prolonged period of austerity following the financial crash of 2008.Consequently, the online worlds of governments and citizens remain strangely separate and distinct.The state can lag behind technological trends endangering its operation.As driverless cars become a reality, for example, the technology available to service them far outstrips the development of the legal framework to govern their use or allocate responsibility, for example when two driverless cars crash.This paper puts forward an 'Essentially Digital' model of Governance (EDGE) to navigate this changed world, a model of bureaucracy where finally digital technologies take centre stage in government organization.It draws on the authors' earlier exploration of Digital Era Governance (Dunleavy, Margetts et al, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013) and over 25 years of research into digital government and policy-making to investigate the relationship between the internet, politics and public policy.The Essentially Digital Governance (EDGE) model places digital technologies at the centre of government, from which they have so long been marginalised (Margetts, 1999; Dunleavy and Margetts, 2006;Pollitt, 2011), starting from the digital baseline that ten years of DEG has provided and putting forward principles for the design of the state in the era of social media, cloud computing, robotization and big data.It identifies the organizational cultures that can foster EDGE practices, most originating outside of government, in visions and practices that derive from the normative views and theoretical models that have grown up around the internet and information technology, from open source to digital rights and even the anarchism and cyber-utopianism that characterised the early days of the internet.It provides practical principles for the design of governmental organization and service delivery, and for the normative choices that confront policy-makers in the digital era.The paper is structured as follows.First, we look at the relationship between technology and bureaucracy in public management reformr and, second, how digital cultures have grown up in the information state.Third we make the case for nine 'Do' principles and 'Choice' principles to guide the design of 'Essentially Digital Governance'.First, five 'Do' principles provide the framework for administrative and service design: D1