Governing Electronically E-Government and the Reconfiguration of Public Administration, Policy and

Governing Electronically

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Also by Paul Henman

ADMINISTERING WELFARE REFORM: International Transformations in

Welfare Governance (co-edited with Menno Fenger)

CROSSTALK: Topics of Australian Church and Society (edited)

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Governing Electronically

E-Government and the Reconfiguration of

Public Administration, Policy and Power

Paul Henman

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© Paul Henman 2010

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this

publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted

save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence

permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,

Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication

may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted his right to be identified

as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs

and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2010 by

PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,

registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,

Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies

and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,

the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries

ISBN-13: 978-0-230-20588-8 hardback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully

managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing

processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the

country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Printed and bound in Great Britain by

CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

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For

HRW who taught me to aspire

JEH who taught me to critique

&

BCL who taught me to have passion

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Contents

List of Abbreviations ix

Acknowledgements xi

Part I Examining E-government 1

1 Introduction 3

The consequences of technology 5

Locating and understanding e-government 7

Structure and argument of the book 10

Undertaking the study 12

2 Conceptualising Technology and Government 17

The things things do 20

Governmentality 24

Information technology and government 28

3 The Governmentality of E-government 33

Part II Domains of E-government 45

4 E-Welfare 47

International context 47

The Australian welfare system 50

The e-welfare case studies 52

Moving forward: Future directions in e-welfare 69

5 E-Tax 73

International context 73

The Australian taxation system 78

The e-tax case studies 81

Future directions in e-tax 93

6 E-Health 95

International context 95

The Australian health system 98

The e-health case studies 100

Future directions in e-health 110

vii

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Part III Reconfigurations of Government 113

7 Reconfiguring Public Administration 115

The changing face of public administration 116

E-public administration? 123

8 Speed, Time and the Future 133

Technology and time 133

E-government and time intensification 137

Governing the future 144

9 Networks and Conditionality 150

Networks and policy 151

The new conditionality 156

10 Risk and Targeted Government 167

Characterising risk governmentalities 169

Governing risk through e-government 174

Electronic transformations in risk governmentalities 180

Towards targeted government 187

11 Complex Government 191

Increasing policy and administrative complexity 192

A case study on policy complexity 196

Why complexity matters 199

Governing complexity? 207

12 Reconfiguring Power, Citizenship, Society 209

Foucault’s notions of power 212

E-government’s varieties of power 215

Reconfiguring citizens and subjects 222

Reconfiguring society: The fragmentation of the social 228

Conclusion: Governing electronically 238

Notes 241

References 247

Index 267

viii Contents

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List of Abbreviations

ABN Australian Business Number

ABR Australian Business Register

ACIR Australian Childhood Immunisation Register

AFDC Aid to Families with Children

AHIC Australian Health Information Council

ANAO Australian National Audit Office

ATO Australia Taxation Office

AUSTRAC The Australia Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre

B2B Business to Business

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CIO Chief Information Officer

CTPA Centre for Tax Policy and Administration

DGI Direction General des Imports

DoFA Department of Finance and Administration

DoFD Department of Finance and Deregulation

DoHA Department of Health Ageing

DSS Department of Social Security

EDI Electronic Data Interchange

EITC Earned Income Tax Credit

ELS Electronic Lodgement Service

FaCS Family and Community Services

FAO Family Assistance Office

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GIS Geographical Information System

GPII General Practice Immunisation Incentive

GST Goods and Services Tax

HCA Human Capital Alliance

HIC Health Insurance Commission

ICT Information and Communications Technology

IRAS Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore

IRS Internal Revenue Service

IT Information Technology

JSCI Job Seekers Classification Index

KPI Key Performance Indicator

LEAD Learning Earning and Parenting

MOU Memorandum of Understanding

ix

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NAO National Audit Office

NOIE National Office of the Information Economy

NPM New Public Management

OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development

OED Oxford English Dictionary

OTA Office of Technology Assessment

PBS Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

PFI Private Finance

PKI Public Key Infrastructure

PPP Public Private Partnership

SSL Supplementary Security Income

TANF Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

WFTC Working Family Tax Credit

x List of Abbreviations

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Acknowledgements

We live in a world infused with technologies, many old and many new.

Each day we learn of new technological advances often promoted to

redefine our lives and our societies. Information and communication

technologies (ICTs) have always been a part of the human social exper￾ience from the invention of human language and writing, to the rapidly

evolving world wide web. These ICTs are central to modern life including

our personal and social relationships, our employment and our experience

of work, and the operation of the modern state. The advent of the inter￾net has generated new and heightened interest in the governmental oper￾ations of the state, spurring new debates about power, democracy, surveil￾lance and freedom.

The origins of my intellectual journey, of which is this book repre￾sents another step, began before the internet became commonplace

and euphorically celebrated. As such it contains a critical stance to much

e-government literature, which is neither theoretically nor historically

informed. By studying contemporary uses of ICTs by governments, this

book seeks to offer a more nuanced appreciation of what new and often

networked ICTs are contributing to the reconfiguration of public admin￾istration, policy and power. As such, this book does not present the use

of the internet (and other advanced ICTs) by government as a major

rupture in the practices of the state. Nor does it argue that such use is

simply a further extension of a continuous trajectory. In the same way

this book is neither an account against or for technology. A further

dualism that this book seeks to bypass is one that posits either that techno￾logy drives social change on the one hand, or social actors and dynamics

drive technological deployment and change. Rather, it argues that con￾temporary ICTs in their complex interweaving with social actors and

political endeavours, contribute subtly to the practice of government, but

nonetheless their contribution can be at times significant. Charting and

making visible these dynamics is the objective of this book. It is by

making such dynamics visible, the possibility of thinking and acting

otherwise is given birth.

As with all major projects, this one has been influenced by and con￾tributed to by a number of human and non-human actors. I particularly

want to thank the enormous intellectual and personal contribution of

Mitchell Dean and Michael Adler who have in different ways supported

xi

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and encouraged my intellectual journey to see its fruition. Their separate

collaborations with me are evident in the pages of this book. I also thank

the many research staff and dear colleagues – Louise Healey, Sharon

Gaby, Princess Fiona, Stephen Thornton and John Owen – who have been

invaluable in bringing this project to a close through conducting research,

finding literature, drafting passages, editing and proof reading. I am also

indebted to my family who have held me together emotionally – my part￾ner Anthea who has lovingly understood the stresses involved, and my

father-in-law Rod, who sparked the initial idea of putting my dual inter￾ests of computers and social policy together – and my medical team

who and medical devices that have held me together in body. This book

is dedicated to those who helped form me: to my late grandfather Harold

Raymond William Mogridge who taught me to aspire; to my mother

Jenny Henman who introduced me to critical thought; and my father

Brian Henman who showed me how to have passion in what one does.

The non-human actors that have contributed to this achievement

include the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Grant with Mitchell

Dean (DP0209812), various internal small research grants from Macquarie

University and the University of Queensland. I finally acknowledge per￾mission from the BBC to quote from the ground-breaking Walking with

Dinosaurs television series, the Australian Commonwealth government to

reprint figures from the Parliamentary Joint Committee of Public Accounts

and Audit Report, and Maringka Baker, Amanda Dent and Nick Nicholson

to reproduce Ms Baker’s stunning artwork Kuru Ala on the book’s cover.

xii Acknowledgements

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Part I

Examining E-government

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