Technological Innovation In American Local Governments

The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression has generated a fundamental re-evaluation of the free-market policies that have dominated American politics for three decades. State of Innovation brings together critical essays looking at the 'innovation industry' in the context of the current crisis. The book shows how government programs and policies have underpinned technological innovation in the US economy over the last four decades, despite the strength of 'free market' political rhetoric. The contributors provide new insights into where innovations come from and how governments can support a dynamic innovation economy as the US recovers from a profound economic crisis. State of Innovation outlines a 21st century policy paradigm that will foster cutting-edge innovation which remains accountable to the public.

This book lays out an impressive, well-articulated set of trends that have affected or will soon affect local governments throughout the nation through technology. Amazingly, as Dr. Shark points out, all of this massive change has occurred within the past 12 years. While technology trends continue to play out in the local government realm, public managers, mainly city and county managers and assistant city and county managers, have experienced quite a number of challenges in navigating the brave new world. Dr. Shark chose local governments as the primary focus because their jurisdictions are where most innovation and experimentation takes place. Despite its focus, this book should be especially helpful to state governments, and perhaps federal agencies, trying to better understand the challenges local governments face. The Seven Trends that will Transform Local Government through Technology is a must-read for all public managers who are seeking answers about how all the pieces fit together and, as importantly, why. No other book on this subject lays it out as convincingly as this one.

Science, Technology, and National Policy is the first collection of essays to deal with technology as it relates to, and is influenced by, public policy-making. Bringing together twenty-five of the most significant papers on this topic, the editors seek to provide a broad perspective, to sample the full spectrum of core concerns in technology policy, and to stimulate critical thinking. Part One treats the social, political, economic, and international concerns that affect technology policy. Part Two examines how different government institutions deal with technology, including the federal executive, Congress, courts, and state and local governments. Ideal for professional and course use, this volume offers an excellent framework for discussing and coming to terms with these complex issues.

The Internet and related technologies have dramatically changed the way we live, work, socialize, and even topple national governments. As the Internet becomes increasingly pervasive across societies, we find more often that governments adopt Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) as part of their toolbox for facilitating efficient and citizen-oriented service delivery at all levels of government. Local governments across the major industrialized democracies have not been an exception to this trend and have set sail into the age of digital government. Closest to their citizens, towns and cities have adopted ICTs to facilitate electronic government (e-government). While research on local e-government functionality in terms of information dissemination, service delivery, and citizen engagement continues at an impressive empirical and methodological pace, gaps in our knowledge remain. Cross-national comparative research on local e-government that covers a wide range of municipalities in combination with in-depth case study analyses is lacking. Informed by a comparative case study approach, this book seeks to narrow that gap and offer practical policy solutions to facilitate local e-government. We do so by pursuing both a macro and micro perspective of e-government functionality in the federal republics of Germany and the United States and unitary France and Japan. The macro perspective focuses on the state and scope of e-government functionality across a large number of randomly selected municipalities of all sizes in these advanced industrialized countries. Based on a small sample of case studies, the micro perspective analyzes the successful implementation of e-government in Seattle (United States), Nuremberg (Germany), Bordeaux (France), and Shizuoka City (Japan).