IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/124539.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The political economy of digital government: how Silicon Valley firms drove conversion to data science and artificial intelligence in public management

Author

Listed:
  • Margetts, Helen
  • Dunleavy, Patrick

Abstract

Until 2010, Anglosphere digital governments struggled to modernize, dependent on large-scale contract relationships with global systems integrators (SIs) and elderly, custom-built legacy systems. Policy-makers have (belatedly) converted to the value of the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies for improving government. Using elite interviews with government officials in three Anglosphere governments, this article traces the origins of this conversion back to Silicon Valley (SV) and platform corporations. These massive firms drove cultural, organizational and technological developments that reduced the influence of SIs. Going forward, SV firms’ practices will now drive public management use of data science and AI, shaping financial systems and practices. Drawing together elements from business studies, organizational change, public management reform, digital government and AI scholarship and practice, the authors show how government’s relationships with SV firms re-shape political economy relationships and bring digital change in government closer to SV ways of working.

Suggested Citation

  • Margetts, Helen & Dunleavy, Patrick, 2024. "The political economy of digital government: how Silicon Valley firms drove conversion to data science and artificial intelligence in public management," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124539, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124539
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/124539/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dunleavy, Patrick & Margetts, Helen, 2023. "Data science, artificial intelligence and the third wave of digital era governance," OSF Preprints f3rza, Center for Open Science.
    2. Helen Margetts & Cosmina Dorobantu, 2019. "Rethink government with AI," Nature, Nature, vol. 568(7751), pages 163-165, April.
    3. Mariana Mazzucato & Rainer Kattel, 2020. "COVID-19 and public-sector capacity," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 256-269.
    4. Jones, Steve, 2015. "Cloud computing procurement and implementation: Lessons learnt from a United Kingdom case study," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 712-716.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tan Yigitcanlar & Rashid Mehmood & Juan M. Corchado, 2021. "Green Artificial Intelligence: Towards an Efficient, Sustainable and Equitable Technology for Smart Cities and Futures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-14, August.
    2. Jorge Luis Tonetto & Adelar Fochezatto & Josep Miquel Pique, 2023. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Use of the Menor Preço Brasil Application," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, October.
    3. Mindaugas Butkus & Giovanni Schiuma & Ilona Bartuseviciene & Ona Grazina Rakauskiene & Lina Volodzkiene & Laura Dargenyte-Kacileviciene, 2023. "The impact of organizational resilience on the quality of public services: Application of structural equation modeling," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 18(2), pages 461-489, June.
    4. Okubo, Toshihiro, 2022. "Traveling and eating out during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Go To campaign policies in Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    5. John R Bryson & Chloe Billing & Mark Tewdwr-Jones, 2023. "Urban infrastructure patching: Citizen-led solutions to infrastructure ruptures," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(10), pages 1932-1948, August.
    6. Tuzov, Viktor & Lin, Fen, 2024. "Two paths of balancing technology and ethics: A comparative study on AI governance in China and Germany," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(10).
    7. BARCEVICIUS Egidijus & CIBAITE Guonda & CODAGNONE Cristiano & GINEIKYTE Vaida & KLIMAVICIUTE Luka & LIVA Giovanni & MATULEVIC Loreta & MISURACA Gianluca & VANINI Irene, 2019. "Exploring Digital Government transformation in the EU," JRC Research Reports JRC118857, Joint Research Centre.
    8. Charlene H. Chu & Simon Donato-Woodger & Shehroz S. Khan & Rune Nyrup & Kathleen Leslie & Alexandra Lyn & Tianyu Shi & Andria Bianchi & Samira Abbasgholizadeh Rahimi & Amanda Grenier, 2023. "Age-related bias and artificial intelligence: a scoping review," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    9. Ana Luíza Matos Oliveira & Magali N. Alloatti, 2022. "Gendering the crisis: austerity and the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(1), pages 203-224, April.
    10. Jorge Luis Tonetto & Josep Miquel Pique & Adelar Fochezatto & Carina Rapetti, 2024. "Survival Analysis of Small Business during COVID-19 Pandemic, a Brazilian Case Study," Economies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-21, July.
    11. Emilio Barucci & Francesca Grassetti, 2024. "Pandemic Crisis, Power and the Role of the State," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(6), pages 415-424, April.
    12. Kidjie Saguin & Michael Howlett, 2022. "Enhancing Policy Capacity for Better Policy Integration: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in a Post COVID-19 World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-13, September.
    13. Yusuf Anthony Olukayode & Opawole Akintayo & Musa Nofiu Abiodun & Kadiri Dele Samuel & Ebunoluwa Esther Ilori, 2022. "Capability improvement measures of the public sector for implementation of building information modeling in construction projects," Organization, Technology and Management in Construction, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 2710-2730, January.
    14. Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Cohard & Juan José Juste-Carrión & Antonio Vázquez-Barquero, 2021. "Challenges and Responses of Agri-Food Activities under COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of the Spanish Territories Producing Wine and Olive Oil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-21, December.
    15. Scott Duke Kominers & Alex Tabarrok, 2022. "Vaccines and the Covid-19 pandemic: lessons from failure and success," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(4), pages 719-741.
    16. Dubey, Rameshwar & Bryde, David J. & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Graham, Gary & Foropon, Cyril & Papadopoulos, Thanos, 2023. "Dynamic digital capabilities and supply chain resilience: The role of government effectiveness," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    17. Tünde Zita Kovács & András Nábrádi & Szabolcs Tóth & László Huzsvai & Adrián Nagy & Beáta Bittner, 2023. "Sustainable Public Transportation in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) Age," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-15, October.
    18. Ramizo, Godofredo Jr, 2021. "Practical Lessons for Government AI Projects," SocArXiv ka5vd, Center for Open Science.
    19. Dweck, Esther & Marcato, Marilia Bassetti & Torracca, Julia & Miguez, Thiago, 2022. "COVID-19 and the Brazilian manufacturing sector: Roads to reindustrialization within societal purposes," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 278-293.
    20. Virgil Henry Storr & Stefanie Haeffele & Jordan K. Lofthouse & Anne Hobson, 2022. "Entrepreneurship during a pandemic," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 83-105, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    AI (artificial intelligence) ingovernment; cloudcomputing and government; digital era governance; digital government; public management reform; public sector contracting; public sector IT;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration
    • L86 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Information and Internet Services; Computer Software
    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124539. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.