The Political Economy Of Govtech

The digitalization of public services, known as GovTech, can disrupt traditional mechanisms to promote economic development (for example, financial inclusion, education, and health care), improve the delivery of public services, and expedite development objectives. For GovTech to be successful in enhancing the public sector's efficiency, transparency, and inclusiveness, its design and implementation require that private interests be aligned with the overarching goal of a “citizen-oriented” digitalization. Because the interests of the state and private providers are often antagonistic, the social dividends from GovTech remain contingent on implementing the appropriate market structure through adequate property rights and regulatory oversight.

Governments have been using technology to modernize the public sector for decades. The World Bank Group (WBG) has been a partner in this process, providing both financing and technical assistance to facilitate countries’ digital transformation journeys since the 1980s. The WBG launched the GovTech Initiative in 2019 to support the latest generation of these reforms. Over the past five years, developing countries have increasingly requested WBG support to design even more advanced digital transformation programs. These programs will help to increase government efficiency and improve the access to and the quality of service delivery, provide more government-to-citizen and government-to-business communications, enhance transparency and reduce corruption, improve governance and oversight, and modernize core government operations. The GovTech Initiative appropriately responds to this growing demand. The GovTech Maturity Index (GTMI) measures the key aspects of four GovTech focus areas—supporting core government systems, enhancing service delivery, mainstreaming citizen engagement, and fostering GovTech enablers—and assists advisers and practitioners in the design of new digital transformation projects. Constructed for 198 economies using consistent data sources, the GTMI is the most comprehensive measure of digital transformation in the public sector. Several similar indices and indicators are available in the public domain to measure aspects of digital government—including the United Nations e-Government Development Index, the WBG’s Digital Adoption Index, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Digital Government Index. These indices, however, do not fully capture the aspects of emphasis in the GovTech approach—the whole-of-government approach and citizen centricity—as key when assessing the use of digital solutions for public sector modernization. The GTMI is not intended to be an assessment of readiness or performance; rather, it is intended to complement the existing tools and diagnostics by providing a baseline and a benchmark for GovTech maturity and by offering insights to those areas that have room for improvement. The GTMI is designed to be used by practitioners, policy makers, and task teams involved in the design of digital transformation strategies and individual projects, as well as by those who seek to understand their own practices and learn from those of others.

Digital divide across countries and within countries continues to persist and even increased when the quality of internet connection is considered. The note shows that many governments have not been able to harness the full potential of digitalization. Governments could play important role to facilitate digital adoption by intervening both on supply (investing in infrastructure) and demand side (increase internet affordability). The note also documents significant dividends from digital adoption for revenue collection and spending efficiency, and for outcomes in education, health and social safety nets. The note also emphasizes that digitalization is not a substitute for good governance and that comprehensive reform plans embedded in National Digital Strategies (NDS) combined with legal and institutional reforms are needed to ensure that governments can reap full benefits from digitalization and manage the risks appropriately.

How could the GovTech improve budget processes and execution efficiency? Could the GovTech strengthen redistributive function of public expenditure? Based on an event-study method, this paper finds that the introduction of digital budget payments and e-procurement could significantly enhance budget transparency and help expand the coverage of social assistance to reach the most vulnerable population. Exploiting staggered adoption of digital budget payments, a synthetic control regression identifies meaningful increase in pre-tax income shares among the bottom 50th percentile and female workers, especially for emerging market and developing countries, with effects materializing gradually over 10-year period. The paper delves into the potential mechanism driving these equity benefits, highlighting the reduction in business informality as a primary channel. However, the paper emphasizes that the mere adoption of GovTech strategies or digital technologies is insufficient to unlock its full potential. The outcomes are intricately linked to supporting policies, regulations, organizational and system integration, and robust digital connectivity. The paper underscores that inter-agency coordination facilitated by a dedicated GovTech institution emerges as a critical factor for reaping both efficiency and equity gains from GovTech initiatives.

This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the alterations and problems caused by new technologies in all fields of politics. It further examines the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the nexus between politics, economics, and law. The book raises and answers several important questions: What is the role of AI in politics? Are people prepared for the challenges presented by technical developments? How will Al affect future politics and human society? How can politics and law deal with Al's disruptive technologies? What impact will AI and technology have on law? How can efficient cooperation between human beings and AI be shaped? Can artificial intelligence automate public decision-making? Topics discussed in the book include, but are not limited to digital governance, public administration, digital economy, corruption, democracy and voting, legal singularity, separation of power, constitutional rights, GDPR in politics, AI personhood, digital politics, cyberspace sovereignty, cyberspace transactions, and human rights. This book is a must-read for scholars and students of political science, law, and economics, as well as policy-makers and practitioners, interested in a better understanding of political, legal, and economic aspects and issues of AI.

This book presents applications and solutions of Big Data in the GovTech system and recommendations for regulating the institutions of the digital economy and information society for the wide application of Big Data with the use of the institutional approach. In this book, a systematic scientific understanding of GovTech is formed, the central place of Big Data in this system is substantiated, and modern experience in the functioning and development of this system is considered in detail. The contribution of the book to the literature is to bridge the gap between theory and practice of GovTech through a comprehensive study of all its manifestations in the three parts of the book. The first part is devoted to GovTech in the provision of high-tech educational services based on Big Data. The second part reflects state regulation of the economy by industry using Big Data in the GovTech. The third part outlined the digital divide and the experience of overcoming it with the help of GovTech based on Big Data. The practical significance of the book lies in the fact that it offers a holistic practical guide to the development of the GovTech system based on Big Data. The book will be of interest to academic scientists studying GovTech, as it clarified its categorical apparatus and scientific basis. The subjects of management in GovTech form the secondary target audience of this book, which provides them with numerous cases from the experience of modern Russia, as well as applied recommendations for improving the efficiency of the GovTech system based on Big Data. The book is multidisciplinary and is intended for scientists from various fields of science (pedagogy, economics, business, law, management, and ICT).

Two main themes of the book are that (1) politics can distort optimal fiscal policy through elections and through political fragmentation, and (2) rules and institutions can attenuate the negative effects of this dynamic. The book has three parts: part 1 (9 chapters) outlines the problems; part 2 (6 chapters) outlines how institutions and fiscal rules can offer solutions; and part 3 (4 chapters) discusses how multilevel governance frameworks can help.