Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

On The Effects Of E-Government On Political Institutions, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

Research on e-government typically focuses on disruptive technologies and their presumed transformational effects on government. Yet the Internet and associated technologies are more than two decades old, and even cursory observation demonstrates that institutional change in government is often painstakingly slow. To theorize longer term developments in e-government, an institutional perspective on e-government is sketched and illustrated in this chapter. An institutional approach invites one to examine interactions among people, technologies and structures over time and in political environments characterized in part by conflict over ideas, rights and resources to uncover mechanisms that contribute to stability and change.

To extend …

Gpra Modernization Act Of 2010: Examining Constraints To, And Providing Tools For, Cross-Agency Collaboration, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

Cross-agency collaboration is widely viewed as a powerful means for government reform and performance improvement. Greater coordination across agencies offers the potential for the Federal government to address complex policy challenges that lie inherently across agency boundaries and jurisdictions. Further, cross-agency initiatives promise a means to increase efficiency, effectiveness and accountability by reducing overlap, redundancy and fragmentation. To further these ends, the Government Performance and Results Act Modernization Act of 2010 requires the Executive branch and federal agencies to develop cross-agency performance goals and specifies directives toward their advancement, use, review and measurement.

Several lines of research examine governance across …

Enhancing Information Services Through Public-Private Partnerships: Information Technology Knowledge Transfer Underlying Structures To Develop Shared Services In The U.S. And Korea, Jane E. Fountain, Seok-Jin Eom

Jane E. Fountain

What are e-government success factors for using public-private partnerships to enhance learning and capacity development? To examine this question, the authors developed a comparative case analysis of the development of the Business Reference Model (BRM), a national-level e-government initiative to promote shared information services, in the U.S. federal government and the Korean central government. The results indicate institutional arrangements deeply affect the outcomes of knowledge transfer. The study shows that private sector partners in both countries played various roles as “brokers” of information technology (IT) knowledge between government and the private sector by: raising awareness of the necessity of the …

The Future Of Government: Lessons Learned From Around The World, Jane E. Fountain, Guido Bertucci, Gregory G. Curtin, Yuri E. Hohlov, Katju Holkeri, Yasar Jarrar, James Kang, Bruno Lanvin, Beth Simone Noveck, Toshio Obi, Haiyan Qian, Ohood Roumi, Larry Stone, Aleem Walji

Jane E. Fountain

Governments around the world are faced with new demands, new expectations and a fast-growing array of new technologies and tools. A current example is the Middle East, where a youth revolution built on the global technology revolution is demanding immediate reform. The challenges faced by governments increasingly span national borders and require resources and expertise to be mobilized on a scale that far exceeds those of governments.

To be efficient and effective in today’s complex, interlinked and fast-changing environment, governments need to redesign their structures and processes to capitalize on a new set of actors and tools. In this context, …

Disjointed Innovation: The Political Economy Of Digitally Mediated Institutional Reform, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

Current attention to social media and governance has focused on the enactment of networked communication and information use by and for governance with particular attention to the role of civil society. This paper argues that such a focus, while illuminating a possibly utopian perspective on political participation, often obscures even recent government reforms, existing institutional arrangements, and the myriad processes by which knowledge is translated to action in political settings. Drawing from and extending core perspectives within historical institutionalism, the paper examines three streams of theory and research: temporal models, coordination models, and the political effects of public policies where …

Evaluating Economic Development Programs Using Matched Employee‐Employer Data In A Quasi‐ Experimental Framework, Henry C. Renski

Henry C Renski

In the wake of shrinking public coffers, policy makers are demanding greater accountability from their economic development initiatives. In a discipline known for ‘claiming anything that falls,’ attempts to objectively evaluate economic development programs have been stymied by ill-suited data sources and methods. Survey research is expensive and responding firms have an incentive to lie about the effectiveness of subsidies. Publicly available data on employment, wages, and other outcomes are highly aggregated and lack the power to capture impacts from anything other than the most dramatic, large-scale initiatives. Confidential employee- and establishment-level (micro) data holds considerable promise for more rigorous …

Environmental Justice And Roma Communities In Central And Eastern Europe, Krista Harper, Tamara Steger, Richard Filcak

Krista M. Harper

Environmental injustice and the social exclusion of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has roots in historical patterns of ethnic exclusion and widening socioeconomic inequalities following the collapse of state socialism and the transition to multi-party parliamentary governments in 1989. In this article, we discuss some of the methodological considerations in environmental justice research, engage theoretical perspectives on environmental inequalities and social exclusion, discuss the dynamics of discrimination and environmental protection regarding the Roma in CEE, and summarize two case studies on environmental justice in Slovakia and Hungary. We argue that when some landscapes and social groups are …

Across The Bridge: Using Photovoice To Study Environment And Health In A Romani Community., Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

This photo essay is the product of a partnership between Prof. Krista Harper, the Sajó River Association for Environment and Community Development, and community organizer Judit Bari. The project took place in a small city in northeastern Hungary hit hard by factory closings since the collapse of state socialism in 1989. The Roma community, about 20% of the town’s population, has been especially vulnerable. A team of six young people participated as photographers and discussion participants, working closely with Harper and Bari. Other community members joined discussions of the images. The team held a photo exhibition in the neighborhood where …

From Democratization To Globalization To Justice: Political Generations In Hungarian Environmentalism From The 1980s To The 2000s, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

This presentation applies sociologist Nancy Whittier's concept of "political generations" to explore political identities and strategies appearing over time in the Hungarian environmental movement. I discuss the rise of democratic environmentalism in the 1980s, the shift to a more professionalized and globally oriented activist stance in the 1990s, and the emergence of social justice frames associated with the newest cohort of environmental activists of the 2000s.

Bureaucratic Reform And E-Government In The United States: An Institutional Perspective, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

Technology enactment, an analytical framework that focuses on the processes by which new information and communication technologies come to be used by organizational actors, is distinctly institutional in orientation. An institutional perspective provides a challenge to researchers to integrate attention to structure, politics, and policy into studies of e-government. It also invites attention to the roles and relationships of formal and informal institutions. Formal institutions—laws, reg- ulations, budget processes, and other governmental procedures—are central to legitimation and shaping incentives for the use of ICT as an integral and inseparable set of elements in the administrative state. Informal institutions—networks, norms, and …

The Network Society From Knowledge To Policy

Jane E. Fountain

No abstract provided.

Notes On The Impact Of Research On The Development Of Egovernment, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

In this article, the author sketches three dimensions of a research program that would have significant impact on European politics, economy and society. First, the design and political development of institutions is central to a mature research program, given the role played by these structures and systems in the capacity and behaviour of governments. Second, civil servants are the human actors within institutions who are the agents of change, the designers of the particularised elements of policy design and implementation, and the “nodes” of networked governance. Third, inequality reduction is one of the central tasks of a democratic society.

These …

Towards A Common Egovernment Research Agenda In Europe - European Review Of Political Technologies

Jane E. Fountain

No abstract provided.

Place And Prosperity: Quality Of Place As An Economic Driver, Reilly J. Catherine, Henry C. Renski

Henry C Renski

recent report from the Brookings Institution commissioned by GrowSmart Maine concluded that achieving long-term economic health for Maine depends on preserving and investing in the state’s “quality of place.” In this article, based on a report they did for the Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place, Catherine Reilly and Henry Renski examine whether quality of place is indeed a viable driver of community economic development. They note that Maine has a comparative advantage in quality of place, but that quality-of-place initiatives need to be regional, strategic, and multidimensional, and to involve public, private, and non-profit sectors.

Challenges To Organizational Change: Facilitating And Inhibiting Information-Based Redesign Of Public Organizations, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

No abstract provided.

Wild Capitalism: Environmental Activism And Postsocialist Political Ecology In Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

"Wild Capitalism" examines environmental issues in the "New Europe" of the twenty-first century. Specifically, it looks at how the meanings of "civil society" and "environment" have changed as environmentalists encounter the political and ecological realities of life after state socialism. Although environmentalism is a global social movement, environmental politics is a grassroots process in which activists creatively translate environmental issues into cultural idioms and political processes.

'Wild Capitalism’ And ‘Ecocolonialism’: A Tale Of Two Rivers, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

The development and pollution of two rivers, the Danube and Tisza, have been the site and subject of environmental protests and projects in Hungary since the late 1980s. Protests against the damming of the Danube rallied opposition to the state socialist government, drawing on discourses of national sovereignty and international environmentalism. The Tisza suffered a major environmental disaster in 2000, when a globally financed gold mine in Romania spilled thousands of tons of cyanide and other heavy metals into the river, sending a plume of pollution downriver into neighboring countries. In this article, I examine the symbolic ecologies that emerged …

Central Issues In The Political Development Of The Virtual State, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

The term “virtual state” is a metaphor meant to draw attention to the structures and processes of the state that are becoming more and more deeply designed with digital information and communication systems. Digitalization of information and communication allows the institutions of the state to rethink the location of data, decision mak- ing, services and processes to include not only government organiza- tions but also nonprofits and private firms. I have called states that make extensive use of information technologies virtual states to high- light what may be fundamental changes in the nature and structure of the state in the …

The Genius Of The Nation Versus The Gene-Tech Of The Nation: Science, Identity, And Gmo Debates In Hungary, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Introduction In the late 1990s, Hungarian politicians, environmentalists, and agricultural lobbyists weighed the pros and cons of allowing genetically modified (GM) food and seeds to enter the Hungarian market. Starting around 1994, a small group of Hungarian environmentalists began researching GM issues. Initially, they feared that as a post-socialist country seeking foreign investment, Hungary would become prey to multinational corporations seeking an ‘emerging market’ with a lax regulatory environment. The terms of the debate were reframed over time, notably following 1998, when a number of European Union member states banned the imports of GM foods and when Hungarian expatriate geneticist …

Information, Institutions And Governance: Advancing A Basic Social Science Research Program For Digital Government, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

Throughout the globe, the sweep of information and communication technologies offers unprecedented opportunities for the advancement of governance and society. But information and communication technologies alone are inadequate to foster such benefits. An important, time-sensitive opportunity exists to make a major difference in the development of digital governance and society globally. An applied, rigorous research agenda would clarify for policymakers and the research community the costs and benefits of alternative future visions and paths. A solid research agenda, built through a global network of researchers, possesses the potential to forecast likely positive results and negative outcomes before government actions are …

Toward A Theory Of Federal Bureaucracy For The Twenty-First Century, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

The Internet promises vast changes in American government that range from Internet voting to interactive online services for the public to virtual diplomacy. As a vehicle for disjunctive change in communication, coordination, and control, the Internet and related information technologies make possible new and exciting developments in operations, regulation, and enforcement. In spite of its revolutionary power, the potential benefits of the Internet, and its potential perils, will be strongly influenced by the current organizations and institutions of government, for it is within the constraints posed by these structural arrangements that government actors make decisions and information networks that connect …

Public Sector: Early Stage Of A Deep Transformation, Jane E. Fountain, Carlos A. Osorio-Urzua

Jane E. Fountain

American government is in the early stages of deep transformation as a result of the Internet and a host of related developments in information and communications technologies. Rapid growth of web-based applications in the government sector promises significant cost savings through structural changes in the production and delivery of government information and services. Deeper organizational and institutional restructuring in government is likely to generate further efficiency gains. But cost savings that result from institutional and organizational transformation are more difficult to calculate because savings due to technology cannot be disaggregated from those due to structural modification. Furthermore, it is in …

Constructing The Information Society: Women, Information Technology, And Design, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

For the first time in history, women have the opportunity to play a major and visible role in a social transformation of potentially monumental proportions. The extensive reach and penetration of information technology into virtually every area of society creates enormous opportunities for women. But women’s lack of representation in IT design roles may prevent them from capitalizing on these opportunities. Most current discussion and analysis focuses on the increasing numbers of women as users of information technology with great emphasis on their use of the Internet and World Wide Web. Comparatively little attention has been given to the potential …

Social Capital: Its Relationship To Innovation In Science And Technology, Jane E. Fountain

Jane E. Fountain

This paper argues that social capital is a necessary, although not sufficient, enabler of effective public-private partnerships and of a new, more collaborative style of innovation policy, although its significance for science and technology policy, has yet to be assimilated by most policy-makers. The network structure of the biotechnology industry in the United States and the regional-based industrial system in Silicon Valley, California are used to show how social capital affects innovation in science and technology. Two US national policy programs - the Advanced Technology Program and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership - make evident the growing importance of network development. …