Technology And Governance In The 1990s

Outlines the problems, the reasons for urgency and alternatives for resolution of 5 major areas: international security, sustaining the global environment, U.S. economic competitiveness, health care, and public education.

E-Governance has been one of the strategic sectors of reform in India since late 1990s under the rubric of ‘good governance’ agenda promoted by International Organizations. As India’s policy focus changed towards economic liberalization, deregulation and privatization proliferating domestic and foreign investment, ICT (Information Communication Technology) has been one of the leading areas for such heightened investment. Consequently, there has been a burgeoning interest in deploying ICT, in revamping the public service delivery and eventually the overall system of governance. This book analyses e-Governance in India and argues that such initiatives did not take place in isolation but followed in the footsteps of broader governance reform agenda that has already made considerable impact on the discourses and practices of governance in India. Employing interdisciplinary methodology by combining approaches from the Political Sciences, Sociology and Postcolonial/ transcultural studies, this book presents a qualitative account of the policies and practices of e-Governance reform in India along with a detailed case study of the Common Services Centres (CSCs) Scheme under the National e-Governance Plan of the Government of India and its resultant impact on the overall system of governance. It unfolds general theoretical issues in terms of the relationship between technology and governance and the entanglement of politics, technology and culture in the complex whole of governance. This furthers our understanding of the impact of the transnational governance reform agenda on post-colonial and post-communist societies of the developing world. Making an important and original contribution to the emerging field of e-Governance and to the existing body of research on governance in general, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Political Science, Political Sociology, South Asian Politics and Governance.

The past 50 years have witnessed a revolution in computing and related communications technologies. The contributions of industry and university researchers to this revolution are manifest; less widely recognized is the major role the federal government played in launching the computing revolution and sustaining its momentum. Funding a Revolution examines the history of computing since World War II to elucidate the federal government's role in funding computing research, supporting the education of computer scientists and engineers, and equipping university research labs. It reviews the economic rationale for government support of research, characterizes federal support for computing research, and summarizes key historical advances in which government-sponsored research played an important role. Funding a Revolution contains a series of case studies in relational databases, the Internet, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality that demonstrate the complex interactions among government, universities, and industry that have driven the field. It offers a series of lessons that identify factors contributing to the success of the nation's computing enterprise and the government's role within it.

Experts discuss moving beyond the notion of electronic government and its focus on technology and efficiency to a broader concept of "information government" that incorporates the role of information flows within government, between government and citizens, and among citizens themselves.

This book addresses the complex issue of global Internet governance by focusing on its implementation in Malaysia and Singapore. The authors draw insights, identify, revisit and flesh out the discourses circulating since the 1990s and pitch them against global internet governance concerns. Internet governance, thought managed domestically/nationally, is a global issue. It is at the heart of how the internet works yet remains hidden within the 'black box' of governance language. While several scholars have entered the fray in recent years, especially in the past decade, very few of them are aware that the Malaysian and Singaporean governments have in fact been at the forefront of Internet regulatory strategies from the early 1990s. The book identifies, revisits and gives flesh to some of the discourses circulating in Southeast Asia at the time and pitches it against current governance concerns. Readers of this book will understand how and why Malaysia and Singapore are important contributors to the issue of internet governance. This knowledge will inform a depth of understanding of why China is keenly seeking to stake its demands on internet governance and sovereignty, and likely American and global responses. Readers will also appreciate how and why the regulation of the Internet has been and will remain a site of contestation and control.

This book is the first to comprehensively analyse the political and societal impacts of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in a region of the Global South. It evaluates under what conditions some Latin American governments and people have succeeded in taking up the opportunities related to the spread of ICTs, while others are confronted with the pessimist scenario of increased, digitally induced social and democratic cleavages. Specifically, the book examines if and how far the spread and use of new ICT affected central aims of democratic governance such as reducing socio-economic and gender inequality; strengthening citizen participation in political decision making; increasing the transparency of legislative processes; improving administrative processes; providing free access to government data and information; and expanding independent spaces of citizen communication. The country case and cross-country explore a range of bottom-up driven initiatives to reinforce democracy in the region. The book offers researchers and students an interdisciplinary approach to these issues by linking it to established theories of media and politics, political communication, political participation, and governance. Giving voice to researchers native to the region and with direct experience of the region, it uniquely brings together contributions from political scientists, researchers in communication studies and area studies specialists who have a solid record in political activism and international development co-operation.