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Centralization or Diffusion?

Two Tales of Online Government

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Can the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet change the power relationships within a bureaucracy? The dominant centralization approach argues that the existing power elite manipulates computers to perpetuate and augment its power. Although not a coherent school of thought, other scholars suggest that technology can decentralize bureaucratic structures and diffuse bureaucratic power. The little-known history of the ICT revolution in the Israeli public sector suggests that the same empirical evidence can be woven into two starkly different historical narratives supporting each of these approaches depending on the kinds of questions scholars ask at the onset of their research.

Administration & Society, Vol. 32, No. 6, 686-709 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/00953990122019622


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