ICT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORMS

The advent of new ICTs brought a lot of new assumptions about radical changes in our society. In the context of the arrival of a new society, public administration was supposed to witness (and to address or implement) changes at different levels, such as: citizenship (citizens becoming participants in governance or even a shift to e-democracy); the nature of public service jobs (in terms of skills, work processes and job design); organizational changes (from a hierarchical to a more horizontal structure, to network or even virtual organizations); and the entire government (from classic bureaucracy to New Public Management and to network and digital governance). Technological change cannot be judged outside the social, economic and political frameworks. The massive change in our society cannot be explained only by technological (especially ICT) factors. Excluding other factors may help us predict easier (but not more accurately) future evolutions but as a scientific effort it is a bad practice. Much of the assumptions about technological change came from hasty generalizations. The changing nature of some collective actions, jobs in certain areas cif the economy or organizations were considered as optimal (and necessary) paths for the entire society (from individual to national levels). Public administration reforms are far from being a consequence of new technologies. Moreover public administration reforms do not embed ICTs and do not have a happy marriage with e-government.