Petrescu, Adrian S
Accurately Measuring the Impact of Information Society/Revolution Conditions upon Public Policy Decision-Making. A Comprehensive Cross-disciplinary Research Agenda.
Abstract
The knowledge utilization literature stresses the paradox of under-utilization of policy analytical knowledge by policy makers who in turn constantly complain about being under-informed when making policy decisions. The Internet and the information society were expected to render this paradox obsolete. Ideally, the information revolution facilitates universal access to information, virtually unlimited information storage capacity, instantaneous information distribution and incredible automated information processing power. These conditions should lead to more informed, better and more effective decision-making in public organizations, be them governmental or not, as well as to a more permeable interface between the latter and the former, giving way to a more participatory government. And yet, there is only little evidence of significantly speedier governments, or of much more effective access by civil societies and/or NGOs to governance, or yet again of much better informed public policy decisions, or of much higher rates of practical utilization of available policy relevant knowledge.
One reason for this puzzle could be that the factors affecting the individual/organizational choice within the balance between availability and accuracy of information/knowledge for public policy decision-making processes combine themselves in more complex ways than meets the eye. Not all sources of information are used equally by various types of decision-makers in various types of organizational structures or contribute equally to different stages of the policy process. Sources of information/knowledge that are strongly affected by information society related conditions are not necessarily the most used sources, whereas the most used sources may not be affected as much by such conditions. Thus, the impact of the information revolution upon public policy decision-making is most likely weaker than was initially expected, social hierarchies, group/status driven exclusions, and public sector typical organizational inertia prevailing over the endogenous drive and exogenous pressures towards adaptation to a new systemic structure. In addition, information revolution conditions may have a multiplier effect both on power of certain groups of interests and on lack thereof of others. By implication, the new information revolution facilitated conditions may in fact lead to the further strengthening of already strong policy/social actors along with increased weakening of weaker actors. As a consequence, the digital era may have a widening effect on already existing social divides.
Using meta-analysis, this paper proposes a research agenda for properly identifying and ranking the factors affecting the adaptation of the public sector\'s knowledge production, utilization, and dissemination practices to information society/revolution driven conditions. Along with knowledge utilization literature, we integrate findings pertaining to the organizational theory literature and decision-making theory. The proposed cross-disciplinary research agenda is meant at identifying, comparing and contrasting the behavior of decision-makers distributed across the private/public and governmental/non-governmental divides. Its scope is to shed true light on whether indeed the civil society-government relationship changes significantly with the information revolution, or if the opposite is true, powerful information and preferences brokers gaining even more power while underprivileged loosing even more of their say under these new conditions.