New Technologies and Institutional Change in Public Administration

Abstract

This article aims to study and analyze, from a multidisciplinary point of view, the organizational and institutional transformations that public administration is experiencing due to a country’s transition to the information and knowledge society. Three specific goals are pursued: (a) studying the use of new technologies in the public administration, (b) studying the impact brought about by the use of new technologies by the public administration, and (c) studying the institutional changes caused by the use of these technologies. To achieve these goals, three guiding lines are considered: first, the term governance; that is, the collection of institutions and rules that set the limits and the incentives needed for the constitution and functioning of interdependent networks of actors (government, private sector and civil society actors); second, the new institutionalism perspective; and finally, the relationship between technology and organizational and institutional change.