Abstract
This conceptual article discusses the opportunities and challenges presented by e-government and e-governance in the Caribbean. An understanding of the issues inherent in these phenomena is crucially important, particularly for the governance systems of small island developing states in the Caribbean. In practice, however, they are rarely discussed,—not least because their complexity is often misunderstood or inappropriately unacknowledged as new directions by political scientists and policy planners. Moreover, the foundational debate on information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their impact on governance and the wider implications for development remain muted owing to the theatrical commotion in other “pressing” aspects of Caribbean political life. As a consequence, this article contextualizes the debate by bringing to the fore a discussion on the importance of understanding the broader political, social, and economic issues and the implications of the use of ICTs and development. In the analysis, a balance is struck to avoid the often disproportionate technocratic parables of a future technological cornucopia being peddled by some international development agencies and officials in the region. Such a macro discussion is necessary if as development advocates and citizens, we are to realize any gains while acknowledging the limitations an enabling e-government and e-governance environment could portend.
Highlights
Technologies for DevelopmentThis conceptual article discusses the opportunities and challenges presented for e-government and e-governance in the Anglophone Caribbean
An understanding of the issues inherent in these phenomena is crucially important, for the governance systems of small island developing states (SIDS) in the Caribbean, in practice, such ideas have become little more than meaningless sound bites with little practical application
By extension, when attempting to highlight to the international community the impact these new technologies pose to these small societies, perhaps because they are objectified by the global media as peripheral “idyllic” regions and not considered as innovative in information and communication technologies (ICTs) or in development, they are excluded from analysis in major academic journals
Summary
Such practices are being challenged by key institutions in the Caribbean like the inveterate trade union movement still referencing the turbulent political struggles of the 1930s, by advocating for the retention of the bureaucracy of the assembly line with its rigid vertical integration and mass production Those who participate in and administer the organizations through which so much of our society’s activity takes place, must know the anatomy and pathology of these new organizational forms emerging within and outside government that are being wrought by ICTs. The intention of this article is not to present a technocratic utopia of ICTs for development, for in the midst of this excitement, there remains a great disparity and persistent digital divide that constrain the opportunity for developing economies to govern with their use. The latter requires enveloping the appropriate institutional change of national ensembles of practices, institutions, and political cultures (Avgerou, 2000; Dimaggio, 2001)
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