Governance.com: Democracy in the Information Age

Elaine Ciulla Kamarck and Joseph S. Nye (The Brookings Institution Press, 2002)

Reviewed by A. C. Hyde

Somewhere in the early days of the 21st century, theorists in political science and public administration created a new dichotomy—what might be called the governance-government dichotomy. Essentially, a new distinction is being made between the "governance"—once the noun form of the verb "govern"—and "government—defined as "the agency or organization through which a governing body exercises authority." Public managers seeking a glimpse of this new development will want to read Governance.com, the fourth book in Harvard University's Vision of Governance in the 21st Century project. There is much to look over and ponder in this short volume of 10 essays, but this review will focus on two articles that are must reading for public managers.

The jewel of this volume is easily Jane Fountain's "Towards a Theory of Federal Bureaucracy for the 21st Century." Essentially, this is Max Weber meets Bill Gates. Fountain, whose earlier impressive volume, Building the Virtual State (considered by many as the first real information technology (IT)-public administration theory book), begins with a simple question. Can 20th century organizations realize the promise of the Internet and related information technologies with 19th century organizational and institutional structures? She outlines Weber's classic properties of bureaucracy and then shows how bureaucracy is transformed by new IT. In sorting out this transformation process, she reminds us of the real challenge facing our aging public service:

For many students of government, the bureaucracy is a phrase synonymous with the civil service. The bureaucrat of the information age will require a vastly different set of skills and expertise. The structure of careers and mobility with the civil service has already been altered as a second order consequence of changes in information technology.

 

The above ought to be the preamble for every strategic plan written in the human resources management office in government (as opposed to governance).

The Governance/Government Dichotomy?

The other essential article is Joseph Nye's introduction on Information Technology and Governance. Nye explores three trends, albeit briefly, globalization, marketization,and information revolution, as context for his thesis that there has been a fundamental shift from big government to the process of political decentralization/diffusion. Alas, this is only an introduction, and the reader will finish with more questions than answers. Nye would surely reply "mission accomplished." But there is no mistaking the principle thesis—that it is not about size anymore. Quoting Nye:

If Bell and others are correct that the nation-state has 'become too small for the big problems of life and too big for the small problems,' we may find not centralization or decentralization, but rather a diffusion of governance activities in several directions at the same time.

Of course, there's more to Governance.com than the Nye and Fountain pieces. There is a provocative article on civic life by William Galston and a superb overview of e-government issues and trends by Jerry Mechling, one of public administration's IT pioneers. But in keeping with the theme of diffusion, start with Nye and Fountain, and see where you end up in this formidable volume of ideas and issues on the governance1 government dichotomy.

A. C. Hyde is a senior. consultant with the Brookings Institution. He is an associate editor of The Public Manager.