'Kalashnikov theory' of e-government
To start with, as we try to come to grips with the new challenge of 'transactional government' here in the UK, we might remember there's a wider world out there, struggling with the internet as a new medium for public sector reform.
"Bureaucracy is the ultimate purpose of the state," Karl Marx said in one of his wittier moments. Yet e-government works best in societies with a relatively thin and efficient public sector. We know this, intuitively at least, from our own experience in the UK and can observe that where government is at its fattest and most Byzantine, e-delivery projects are most likely to fail because being large and being 'joined-up' are mutually incompatible concepts in an environment which demands agility, initiative and shared services.
This is where my Kalashnikov theory comes in - and it's very simple. What I've been telling government leaders in my Middle Eastern travels is that not every country can look towards Dubai or even Singapore in planning a national technology strategy. Instead, most countries with larger populations should remember the rugged examples of the Kalashnikov rifle and the T34 tank. That is, they should build their own nascent services in the same way - resistant to sand and a great deal of harsh treatment, and still capable of delivering what they say on the box in what are often the most hostile bureaucratic and technology-limiting conditions imaginable.
If we in Europe are going to promote e-government as a tool for progressive change across the Middle East, it has to be in a sound local context and with the financial and technical support that will take modest projects to the point of being able to deliver simple, useful services for the many. Or, to quote Winston Churchill: "It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."
posted by Unknown @ 6:53 AM
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