Unit 1
What is Digital Era Government?
Syllabus > Unit 1 Overview of this Unit
The purpose of Unit 1 is to get students to recognise what is different about governing in an era filled with pervasive digital technologies.
This material, developed by Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age, has been prepared to help university faculty to add digital era skills to the teaching of Masters in Public Policy and Masters in Public Administration programs. All these materials are based on our eight Digital Era Competencies.
This unit is one of eight units that make up a full semester course. The units have also been designed to be used by educators independently, without students taking the rest of the course. This unit can be taught in either one or two classes.
Learning Outcome 1
By the end of Unit 1 students will be able to situate the emerging theories and practices of 'Digital Era' government as just the latest in a wave of government practices, and explain the key values-based differences between the current wave and the last.
The key preceding phases students should know about are:
Weberian
Taylorism
New Public Management (NPM)
Learning Outcome 2
By the end of Unit 1 students will be able to understand why governments seek to make use of digital technologies. Governments do this to achieve various goals, including:
A desire to keep up with citizen's expectations that tend to be set by interactions with the private sector.
Reputation - 'Wanting to be modern' and 'wanting to be (perceived as) an international leader'
Increased speed of decision-making and operations
Equity
Efficiency & cost effectiveness
Accessibility
To grow power and control over citizens, organisations and rival powers
To increase the capacities of citizens and organisations
Learning Outcome 3
By the end of Unit 1 students will be able to Identify several challenges that governments face as being 'digital era challenges'. These include:
Culture
Security
Privacy
Equity
Access
Hiring and procurement
Shared, modular infrastructure
Learning Outcome 4
By the end of Unit 1 students will be able to Identify the capabilities that governments should develop to succeed in the digital age.
Learning Outcome 5:
By the end of Unit 1 students will be able to define what is meant by digital for the purposes of this syllabus.
Digital in this course refers both to information and communications technologies (including AI), and new ways of working.
Digital practices are so called partly to differentiate them from 'IT' practices.
Digital is not a synonym for Social Media or AI.
Summary of Key Arguments in this Unit
Argument 1 - Digital is the latest in a series of waves of government practice
The last 150 years has seen several different epochs of information technology. Each period was accompanied by a dominant public administration theory - for example Taylorism or New Public Management - that defined the ideal of 'good government'.
This course outlines a new approach, 'Digital Era Government' which is driven by technological changes, but is about much more than just technology.
Key reading on Argument 1: Technology and Public Management Information Systems: Where we have been and where we are going, (2011) - Ines Mergel & Stuart Bretschneider
Argument 2 - The Digital Era brings new challenges to government, not just opportunities
Governing in a Digital Era brings new opportunities: meeting citizens’ expectations better than ever before, and doing so with unprecedented speed, quality and accessibility. This is possible because of the rise of pervasive computing and an associated wave of new management practices.
However, it also creates new challenges - how will governments deal with privacy and security as they collect vast amounts of data that let them customize services? What new problems of equity and access will emerge - and how will they be managed? How will governments make policy in response to exogenous digital challenges that simply didn't exist before, such as innovations in ride sharing and property rental? These are some of the questions government officials already wrestle with and to which clear policy and administrative answers are needed.
Key reading on Argument 2: Unacceptable IT is pervasive (2012) - Chris Chant
Argument 3: Digital Era government is still evolving
This new approach to public administration is still nascent. As the current rapid developments in AI show, students will need new skills to understand the meaning of digital and its practical applications. And they will need yet more skills to help their workplaces to evolve, and solve digital-era problems. Over the semester, we'll debate and expand on what 'Digital Era Government' is, and we'll explain the practices that underpin it.
Key reading on Argument 3: Digital government units: what are they, and what do they mean for digital era public management renewal? (2019), Amanda Clarke
Detailed Class Breakdowns
In this section we offer examples of different ways of teaching this unit.
Full Teaching Breakdown by David Eaves, Harvard Kennedy School (Includes video)
David teaches Unit 1 across two 90 minute classes. You can access them below.
Full Teaching Breakdown by Professor Ines Mergel, University of Konstanz
Professor Mergel teaches Unit 1 in one 90 minute class. Here's the breakdown of how she teaches it.
Materials to Inspire Your Class Design
We recommend you read or watch the following before you design your own approach to teaching 'Unit 1'.
Read our 'Summary of Key Arguments' (above).
Read this transcript of an online lecture by Tom Steinberg, for Kings College London.
Watch this video of Janet Hughes, for the UK's Department for Education.
Study the Ad Hoc Government Digital Services Playbook.
Watch this video by Jennifer Pahlka on why government is failing in the digital age.
Suggested Pre-Reading for Students
New Public Management Is Dead—Long Live Digital-Era Governance (2005), Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow & Jane Tinkler
Digital Government Units: Origins, Orthodoxy and Critical Considerations for Public Management Theory and Practice (2017), Amanda Clarke
Defining digital transformation: Results from expert interviews (2019), Ines Mergel, Noella Edelmann & Nathalie Haug
Government Design Principles (2012), Guidelines from the UK Government Digital Service
Implementing AI in the Public Sector (2024), Ines Mergel, Helen Dickinson, Jari Stenvall, Mila Gasco
Digital transformation toward AI-augmented public administration: The perception of government employees and the willingness to use AI in government (2022), Michael Ahn, Yu-che Chen
Same same but different: How policies frame societal-level digital transformation (2024), Tobias Mettier, Gianluca Miscione, Claus Jacobs, Ali Guenduez
Deeper Background Reading for You
Book - The Government Machine: A Revolutionary History of the Computer (2003) - Jon Agar
The Theory of Modern Bureaucracy and the Neglected Role of IT (2006) - Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts, Simon Bastow & Jane Tinkler
Book - Building the Virtual State (2000), Jane Fountain
On being and doing government (2019), Adrian Brown
Public value creation in digital government (2019) Panos Panagiotopoulos, Bram Klievink & Antonio Cordella.
The rise and fall of UK digital government - learning from the past (2019), Antonio Weiss
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We are proud to use the Teaching Public Service in the Digital Age syllabus in our curriculum and teaching. Developed by an international community of more than 20 professors and practitioners, the syllabus is available open-source and free at www.teachingpublicservice.digital