Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change

By Jane E. Fountain

Book Overview

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The benefits of using technology to remake government seem almost infinite. The promise of such programs as user-friendly ""virtual agencies"" and portals where citizens can access all sections of government from a single website has excited international attention. The potential of a digital state cannot be realized, however, unless the rigid structures of the contemporary bureaucratic state change along with the times. Building the Virtual State explains how the American public sector must evolve and adapt to exploit the possibilities of digital governance fully and fairly. The book finds that many issues involved in integrating technology and government have not been adequately debated or even recognized. Drawing from a rich collection of case studies, the book argues that the real challenges lie not in achieving the technical capability of creating a government on the web, but rather in overcoming the entrenched organizational and political divisions within the state. Questions such as who pays for new government websites, which agencies will maintain the sites, and who will ensure that the privacy of citizens is respected reveal the extraordinary obstacles that confront efforts to create a virtual state. These political and structural battles will influence not only how the American state will be remade in the Information Age, but also who will be the winners and losers in a digital society.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0815700776
• ISBN13: 9780815700777
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A "Must Read" for Understanding Digital Government

This book is the first work analyzing Digital Government, with special emphasis on the the risks and caveats of egov projects and dynamics between structure and technology. Fountain's "Technology Enactment" framework is specially useful for analyzing egov projects, and understanding their complexity generated by strength of institutional barriers and required operational change.

A useful text for an MPA Information Technology course

I whole-heartedly agree with the other reviews and add one additional comment. I used this book in my Information Technology course to Masters of Public Administration Students. The response to the book was terrific. It helped me make the point that a significant part of information technology in organizations is the people element, and led to terrific discussions on the role of social capital in organizations, among other things. In short, it is a very useful text for an MPA Information Technology course. Fountain's book is a major contribution to the literature on information technology in the public sector and is raising important points about the challenges ahead for e-government.

The new yardstick

A number of books on the information technology and public management have been published. The better ones provided a solid rendition of conventional stories of either agency empowerment or implementation hurdles. Jane Fountain's exquisit "Virtual State" is excitingly different. Using clear language and razor-sharp analysis, she provides a comprehensive framework to understand the interaction of information technology and public management. Eminently readable, well researched case studies complement crisp analysis. Fountain has done nothing more than providing the new yardstick all future works of this genre have to measure against - and nothing less! A must read!

Realizing e-government

"Building the Virtual State" is a superb book on the real issues facing Governments as they move to realize the promise of the Internet. Technology has opened up opportunities to restructure Government from top to bottom. However, the same is true of the private sector. From Government's track record, e-government will face as rocky a road as e-business.Jane Fountain's book makes the challenges facing Government clear. They are not technological. They are found where technology meets organization. And they are hard problems. And they are problems that must be faced. Any one committed to improving government services, having them reach out to all citizens, cutting the cost of government and making government responsive, should own a copy of this book.

IT in the government: it's not as easy as it looks

This impressive book examines the integration of information technology into government agencies. Its major contribution is to examine the role of the organizational milieu in the process of adoption of information technologies in government organizations. Information technology offers the possibility of revolutionizing government-first, by promoting greater integration of information and action among government actors, and, second, by fundamentally changing the relationship between government bureaucracies and citizens. However, it turns out, as Fountain illustrates dramatically through a series of case analyses, that what is technology possible is not always institutionally possible. This book helps the reader understand this gap, further it helps the reader understand how technology is shaped by the institution that it goes into-what comes out is not always what you expect. One needs to understand institutional interests (e.g., technologically-induced transparency is often not in the interest of an organization); as well as organizational culture (e.g., new technologies sometimes embody values that are anathema to those inculcated by an organization). This book therefore should appeal to three audiences: first, to academics who are interested in organizational behavior, because the Virtual State is a significant addition to a growing literature on the autonomy and importance of institutions in society; second, to sophisticated lay readers, who would like to read a serious but readable treatment about how government "really" works, and, in particular, why, what often seem like easy fixes are, in fact, not so easy; and, third, to thoughtful public managers, who wish to improve organizational performance through the use of information technology.