World Dialogue on Regulation

A new book edited by Ester Kaufmann offers a concise overview of the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in public policies in Latin America, by gathering together essays addressing the themes of ICTs and electronic government. The message that emerges is that the region has failed to develop its own strategies to incorporate ICTs into its public policies.

Políticas Públicas y Tecnología: Líneas de acción para América Latina (Public Policies and Technology: Action Lines for Latin America) demonstrates – according to the authors – how the region’s policies simply mirror the “prescriptions” of international agencies. In the meantime, society has appropriated ICTs in whatever way it can, providing a glimpse of their interactive potential and the possibility of fostering exchange between the state and society, if the political will existed.

Throughout the book, as in real life, there are people engaged in wide array of social solutions aimed at bridging the access gap and digital divide, albeit in a haphazard fashion, through cybercafés, public payphone centres, phone cooperatives and mobile phone technology.

Developing homegrown strategies, the authors note, is not an easy task. The regions’ governments need to design models of administration, regulation and oversight in line with the social strategies that have emerged, models that account for the volatile nature of large-scale technological expansion processes and are backed by effective evaluation mechanisms.

These modalities and mechanisms should also be the crux of strategies to promote the appropriation of ICTs by public officials, as well as to foster transformational processes within governments themselves (with regard to data management, regulation, streamlined registration processes, standardization, interoperability, and so forth).

Finally, the concluding essays explore the relationship between ICTs, politics and social
participation, both from the perspective of governance and in terms of the ways in which politicians use – or do not use – these technologies.

To sum up, it is an interesting book that is well worth reading and discussing. What might be lacking is a more in-depth examination of the issues of regulation and standards. Although the essays are rather specifically tied to the national realities of Argentina, many of the general principles are valid throughout the region.