Themes and issues in an information polity

Introduction It is now almost two decades since Daniel Bell signalled the significance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for emergent services-dominated economics in 'post-industrial society' (Bell, 1973). It is 13 years since Marc Porat's major study for the US Government gave force to the term 'information economy' (Porat, 1977). In each of these seminal works, and the many derivations from them, information, along with the new technologies which convey it, are perceived as providing opportunities for change and innovation in the organization of work and in organizational and cost structures, as well as producing wider socio-economic impact (Dizard, 1989; Lyon, 1988). The development and growth of a literature on the emergence of an information economy has not, however, been matched by one which examines the adoption and application by governments of new ICTs and the many issues \srn\c\\ ftow as a consequence. There Yias been, in short, no matching concern with the emergence of an 'information polity', a system of governance within which the development of innovative information systems is producing, and will continue to produce, new rationales for the restructuring and changing focus of government. Governments have always been 'data heavy', necessarily gathering in, for example, the personal details of citizens to create records upon which to base administrative activity. Increasingly, however, government organizations are becoming 'information rich', able to shape and tailor their policy and management decision-making on the basis of the effective conversion to information of large volumes of data. Occurring alongside these new informational capabilities is a refocusing and recasting of government. The core values and practices of public administration are giving way to new ways of developing, organizing, managing and delivering public policy. Many explanations are proffered for these shifts (for example, Hadley and Young, 1990; Taylor and Williams, 1990a). However, the information polity can be viewed as the synthesis - as an emergent outcome of a profound disjuncture with the past as the organizing and operating principles of government shift away from the long-established principles of public administration and are embraced by a new government 'mission' (Taylor and Williams, 1990a). Table 1 below captures the main currents of change which have occurred between and within two post-war eras. The table reveals differences in these eras in respect of key strategic emphasis; in implementation structures for public policy; and in the stress upon organizational responsiveness, as the focus of government shifts towards customers and citizens and somewhat away from more traditional systems of public accountability. It reveals, too, significant shifts in the style and staffing of government as risk aversion gives way in competitive environments to more entre-preneurship, and as new functional and spatial divisions of work are given expression through the growing presence of powerful computer networks. The term information polity is offered then as a conceptual focus for these profound changes. In so doing it places processes of 'information' and the adoption by governments of new ICTs at the centre of these changes. The information polity is intendedly a powerful concept drawing together into a coherent whole different strands in the change processes impacting government. In the remainder of this article the term information polity is unpacked through the systematic investigation of key themes suggested as follows: 152 Table 1. Public administration - strategic eras * Strategy Structure Focus Key systems Ascendant skills Style Staff Computing Operational principles 1945-1975 Meeting rising Expectations Growth Centralized Upward and inward Allocation of additional resources Professional/administrative Creation of and adherence to routine procedures Bureaucratic, neutral risk averse Large central coordinative staff. Front and back office and functions combined in particular locations Centralized mainframe supporting account ledgers and pay roll. Batch process and limited access. Uniformity of provision through sharp functional division of labour. Hierarchical bureaucracies and professional paternalism. 1975-on wards Adjusting to an era of limits Economy, efficiency and responsiveness Deconcentrated and decentralized. Emphasis upon organizational networks Downward and outward Strategic planning and customer service. Management and marketing information systems. Customer database. General management and technical. Specialization, emphasis on flexible, non-routinized work Managerial, proactive, experimental and risk accepting Smaller central staffs. Front and back office staffs conceptually and physically. Growing use of information and communication technologies. Growing diffusion of information and communication technologies. Distributed, real-time processing. Widespread applications. Computer networking. Targetted provision through more integrated structures. Emphasis upon responsiveness of professionals to the citizen and customer * This table is considerably adapted from the Audit Commission, 1984. 1. The adoption, diffusion and application of ICTs, specifically computer networks, in government. 2. Information as a factor of production in government. 3. Government as an information services provider. 4. Information resources and the labour process in government. 5. Information as a strategic resource in government. Each theme is explored from an empirical perspective, bringing forward evidence of the extensive- ness of the development of the information polity in Britain. Furthermore, within each theme, attention is drawn to some of the key issues which confront governments as these changes continue to unfold. However, this article focuses on some issues rather than others. Clearly there is a myriad of issues and some, for example related to date privacy and security, will only be touched upon here, whilst others, such as those related to the changing organizational geography of governments, are dealt in more detail. Theme I. Adopting the technology There is now considerable evidence that government at all levels, central and sub-central, in the UK is rapidly adopting ICTs and, more specifically, that computer networking in government is growing rapidly. SOCITM (1988) suggested that their survey of local government revealed an aggregate intention to increase expenditure on ICTs at an annual rate of 18% in an era when local government spending as a whole is increasing at around 4% per annum. These figures broadly agree with those from a further survey of local government (ICL, 1988) shown in Table 2 below. Table 2. Local government expenditure on ICT * Year Total expenditure Increase on previous year (£m) (%) 153 Table 3. Information technology - distribution of expenditure in local government. 1983 1988 1993 (%) (%) (%) Personal computer systems 4.2 15.8 22.0 Corporate systems 90.6 67.5 46.2 Departmental systems and networking 5.2 16.7 31.6 Source: local government in Britain. An ICL report on the impact of information technology, 1988. Table 4. Government data network - trajectory of deparmental agency involvement 22 23 26 15 26 18 1985 229 1986 281 1987 353 1988 407 1989 517 1990 613 * Derived from ICL report on the impact of IT in local government, 1988. In the UK central government ICT expenditure is also high. In their most recent report the government's Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) reveal that ICT expenditure has increased to 1.7% (or £2 billion) of total central government expenditure. This expenditure represents a marked increase (that is, above 10%) on the figures for the previous year (CCTA, 1990). In both central and local government the distribution of ICT expenditure is shifting too, specifically towards telecommunications-linked computing, or networks. Table 3 clearly shows these trends for local government. In central government telecommunications expenditure is now 33% of total ICT expenditure (CCTA, 1990). Moreover, Table 4 shows how the government data network (GDN), a shared facility for central government departments externally managed by RACAL Data Networks Ltd., is growing in importance for Whitehall Departments (see also Muid, 1989; Wyatt and Rush, 1989). Evidence of strong uptake of ICTs by government has to be set into a general context of slow, even laggardly, adoption and diffusion. A recent report of the Select Committee on Trade and Industry (1989), for example, argued that central government was much slower adopting ICTs than 'analogous' industries such as insurance, even though 1989 1988 1990 (to February) Inland Revenue Employment National Savings Customs and Treasury Office Excise Social Security O.P.C.S. Home Office H.M.S.O Energy General Registry Office (Scotland) Intervention for Board Agricultural ProduceD.T.I "the nature of a government department in which paper andv people abound should particularly lend itself to the use of information technology" (Trade and Industry Select Committee, 1988/89). In a similar vein the Audit Commission has indicated clear differences in the uptake of ICTs between types of government at sub-central level (Audit Commission, 1986, 1990), and SOCITM ( 1988) suggests considerable differences also between local government functions. Table 5 captures this point by offering two rankings for local authority departments. The table reveals a marked disparity between a department's 'budget ranking' in the authority and its ranking in the use of ICTs. Management changes deriving from new legislation for education (for example, local management of schools) and for social services (for example community care management) may well now be providing the stimulus for considerable change from the situation revealed in Table 5 however. 154 Table 5 ICTs and local government functions Function Budget ranking IGT ranking Education 1 3 Social Services 2 4 Housing 3 2 Finance 4 1 Source: SOGITM, 1988. In addition to issues deriving from diverse trajectories of ICT adoption of different public service organizations and functions, the theme of technology take-up also raises issues over the external organizational relationships involved as government agencies increasingly adopt ICTs. Three primary sets of external relationships are involved, those with equipment supplies, those with managers of ICT facilities, and those with the main telecommunications licensed operators. The chief issue arising over relationships with equipment suppliers has historically been one of'lock-in'. Thus in local government, for example, a combination of 'buy British' rhetoric and computing staff recruitment and retention problems has led many authorities into very close dependencies on single computer companies, notably ICL and IBM (Barras and Swann, 1985). In central government too there has been a strong propensity to purchase from ICL, though recent data shows that this is breaking down in favour of a more diffuse pattern of equipment supply (CCTA, 1990). Along with the emergence of a number of de facto standards the CCTA's commitment to a set of common standards - government open systems interconnection profile (GOSIP) - has helped to break down over-dependency upon particular suppliers. Whilst 'lock-in' carries many advantages, particularly for government agencies unable to offer labour market rates for highly skilled computer specialists, its downside is considerable, especially in the context of increasing requirements upon government to become more responsive and innovative. Such changes are increasingly dependent upon new information systems which may be available from a wide-range of suppliers. The GDN provides the best example in UK government of an externally managed computing environment. The scale of the operation managed by RACAL is vast with, for example, 75 000 terminals connected to GDN by March 1990 (GDN Central Support Staff, 1990). The advantages, notably cost advantages deriving from economies issuing from the scope of network use, have to be set against potential problems deriving from externally managed facilities, not least concerning systems integrity and data security. Whilst assurances on both counts are rapidly forthcoming from those involved for others, third-party management of this kind contains considerable potential problems. Finally, wide are a computer networking requires government organizations to lease telecommunications lines from the main licensed operators, British Telecommunications pic (BT) and Mercury Communications Ltd (MCL), in order to put in place their communications infrastructures. Modern digital telecommunications infrastructures are not universally available, however, since, as UK telecommunications policy has been built up around liberalized provision since the early 1980s, so BT and MCL have largely directed their main modernization and infrastructures investment programmes at places with high volumes of business use. The map at Figure 1 reveals a commonplace in British cities (though the specific example here is Glasgow) of the availability of 'Kilostream', BT's basic digital data communications offering. For the local government wanting to introduce the technology throughout its area, or for the Government agency not operating within the Kilostream boundary, considerable problems arise for their full access to the information polity. 1. The boundaries shown are exchange boundaries. 2. The shaded areas are those where Kilostream is offered. Figure 1. BT exchange in Glasgow offering Kilostream services (1989) Theme 2. Information as a factor of production in government One of the key hallmarks of the information economy lies in the change in the status of information to a position of ascendancy in production processes (Melody, 1987). Information flowing between buyers and suppliers and from market sources into the firm is fed into the firm's production activities and forms an integral part of them. Moreover, this information flows in firms are viewed as a source of considerable innovation both in production and in other spheres of company management. Thus within the information economy ICTs have spread across companies, out of the accounting and finance function and through to the rest of the firm. We have shown elsewhere how correspondingly computer networked applications now pervade many of the firm's activities (Taylor and Williams, 1990b). As with the firm, the trajectory of computerized information use has moved on from the finance function in government, where it was located historically, and is increasingly to be found within services departments. In local government, for example, the first use of computers was in payroll and the management of rates billing (Barras and S wann, 1985). Presently, however, information systems are not simply present in other service departments, they are profoundly informing the nature of services themselves. Where information is a factor of production in government it can be seen to have had a qualitative impact on the nature of the service. Thus in traffic management, for example, new information flows improve the quality of the service through facilitating enhanced traffic flow in towns; in school meals they are gradually improving the qualitative aspects of the provision, facilitating choice for pupils and health monitoring for dieticians; and in the libraries service computer networked information flows are creating a more responsive public service in which the individual library can better tailor its book stock to suit particular local consumer preferences (for more detailed accounts of these and other systems see Taylor and Williams, 1989, 1990a). These processes of 'informatization' are therefore increasingly at the heart of government effectiveness, its capability to meet its service objectives to consumers and citizens alike. They are also delivering major advantages to the other two 'E's - economy and efficiency -- reducing costs of service delivery and leading to improved resource use. In some instances they are also providing in-house public service staffs with a competitive edge in competitive tendering arrangements. At the heart of the information polity therefore, is the suffusion into public service of an information richness. Data processing, previously the mainstream of computing activity, is giving way to information management. The issues for government in this context are legion, however, concerning such matters as the capabilities of in-house computing staffs to deliver effective systems in response to demand, and the cost, and prioritizing, of such systems in the face of burgeoning and competing demands for them. Theme 3. Government as an information provider A third theme in exploring the concept of information polity is that of government as information provider. In 1983 the Information Technology Advisory Panel 155 (ITAP) to the Cabinet produced their report 'Making a Business of Information', aimed specifically at the stimulation of an information service sector in the U.K. The report made scant mention of government in this respect however, yet government, as a major gatherer of information, might arguably be in a favourable position to exploit it commercially. Again, sensitive issues of privacy could arise were this to be the case, but for the time-being the legislation does not exist to permit this development. Despite restrictions on the commercial trading in information by government, examples now abound where government is providing information to third parties, generally as part of an economic development strategy. In local government, in particular, a range of innovative information services aimed largely at local economic stimulation is being provided. The list below brings together some examples of these information services provided' by local government (Hepworth et al., 1989): Local trade and product directories (for example, Coventry, Cleveland, Avon, Preston). Computerized registers of local sites and premises for industrial and commercial development (for example, Hampshire, Hamilton, Tonbridge and Mailing). Local labour market data bases, including skills and training requirements (for example, Mansfield, Tameside). Financial assistance schemes for businesses (for example, Grampian Region, South Lakeland). Computerized listings of planning applications and permissions (for example, Sheffield, Northumberland). Scientific and technical data bases on patents, copyright, etc. (for example, Halifax, Renfrew). E.E.C. business collaboration networks (for example, Tendring). In addition to information provision aimed specifically at economic development, some local governments (for example, Coventry and Basildon) are also providing Viewdata services aimed at providing assistance to citizens about the detail of local service provision. As Hepworth ( 1989) makes clear the key issues for government (perhaps particularly for local government in its search for new forms of income) is whether such information should be provided, as now, as public subsidy to business or whether some information should be fully traded as a commercial venture. Theme 4. Information resources and the labour process in government Changes in the style of government which accompany the emergence of the information polity also manifest 156 themselves in changing patterns in the functional and spatial divisions of labour within government as well as in the nature of skills and competencies. The traditional patterns of division of labour within government have been predicated upon specific procedures in government, embodying assumptions about the relative stability of the operational environment. This traditional division of labour embraced a discontinuity between the information requirements of policy-making and evaluation and the data needs of policy delivery. The creation of information resources and an 'information rich' environment is exposing this discontinuity and, at the same time, bringing into focus new patterns of functional and spatial divisions of labour. For example, points of contact between government (in a very wide range of its manifestations) and the public are being reshaped. Increasingly there is a focus upon enabling administrative decisions to be taken at the point of contact with the public rather than following long-winded back office procedures. Similarly, the capture of routine data and its translation into information resources through the use of ICTs is enabling new forms of professional behaviour to emerge. For example, computer networking in library circulation and control systems is allowing library staff to reassert their professional skills, to move away from back office functions and to enhance the delivery of library services. Emphasis has been placed upon the parallels between some aspects of the financial services industry, particularly banks and insurance companies, and public administration (for example, Trade and Industry Select Committee, 1988-89). Table 6 below sets out the changing nature of skills and new competencies emerging in the financial services sector. Parallels between work skills and competencies can be seen between financial services and public administration within the information polity. The changing nature of policy-making and implementation and the need to be increasingly responsive to customer and citizen is bringing into play new skills and competencies which mirror those in Table 6. What is also evident, though not specifically from Table 6, is that changes in the labour process are bringing about changes in the spatial division of labour. Historically government has deconcentrated its clerical back office functions to the peripheral regions in much the same way as large manufacturing companies have favoured with their branch plants. However, the widespread adoption of ICTs, and the need to be responsive to customers and citizens, is opening up new opportunities for decentralization rather than the pre-existing forms of déconcentration. These opportunities for decentralization are giving rise to changes in the spatial division of labour within government through the simultaneous reduction in the scale Table 6. The changing nature of skills in banks and insurance companies Old competencies New competencies General 1. Ability to operate in well- Ability to operate in ill- defined and stable defined and ever- environments changing environment 2. Capacity to deal with Capacity to deal with repetitive, straight non-routine abstract forward and concrete work process work process 3. Ability to operate in a Ability to handle supervised work decisions and responsi- environment responsibilites 4. Isolated work Group work; interactive work 5. Ability to operate Comprehensive grasp within narrow geo- of systems; ability graphical and time to operate within horizons expanding geo- graphical and time horizons Specific Among upper-tier workers 1. Generalist Broad, New expertise Growing largely unspecialized need for high-level spec- knowledge; focus on ialized knowledge in well- operating managerial defined areas skills 2. Administrative Old New entrepreneurship leadership skills; Capacity not only to routine administration; manage but set strategic hierarchical, carrot- goals; to share and-stick personnel information with sub- management approach; ordinates and to listen ability to carry out to them; to motivate orders from senior individuals to develop management new business opportunities Specific Among middle-tier workers 1. Procedural. Specialized Customer assistance and sales skills focused on Broader and less applying established specialized skills focused clerical procedural on assisting customers techniques involving and selling capacity; to the capacity to receive define and solve problems and execute orders Among lower-tier workers 1. Specialized skills focused disappearance of low- on data entry and data skill jobs processing Source : OECD/CERI, 1988. 15 7 of 'clerical factories' and the migration of high level decision-making from the centre. Theme 5. Information as a strategic resource in government Information can be seen as a strategic resource for government in an information polity in two ways. In the first place, for sub-central governments the infrastructure for effective communication of information is increasingly stressed as an aspect of localized comparative economic advantage. In the second place new information flows are enabling senior managers in government organizations to develop and implement strategic policies. More and more, topocratic leadership (Beer, 1978) in Britain's local government is laying emphasis upon the telecommunications infrastructure as part of a strategy to entice inward investment. The modern business firm is increasingly dependent upon high quality telecommunications provision and increasingly the locational decision-making criteria of firms include this factor. Table 7 below shows how a number of Britain's cities are using these infrastructures in order to promote the city. Glasgow Manchester Coventry Sheffield Cardiff Table 7. Information and the promotion of places Information City Europe's first on-line city Coventry on-line Information City Media City Source : Hepworth, 1989. In the second place there is presently considerable stress upon strategic management in government organizations (for example, Flynn, 1990). The combination of emergent competitive environments and resource constraint has led to the structured pursuit in organizations of lower-cost means of delivering organizational goals. The development of the Management Information for Ministers (MINIS) programmes in Whitehall Departments (Drewry and Butcher, 1989) provides one large-scale example. At the core of this strategic impulsion is the development of information resources, both technical infrastructures and systems. A good illustration of how new information resources are central to the development of successful strategic management is revealed in the example of a UK police force. Table 8 below shows how in phase 1 of the implementation of an office automation system (OAS) large savings were made in the time spent by operational police officers on administrative work. The new computerized OAS enabled them to file, store and retrieve crime reports etc., much more rapidly than hitherto. Phase 2 of the implementation saw the introduction of a small, special purpose, administration unit and this organizational change, accompanying the technical change, brought further dramatic reductions in time spent on administration. Table 8. Office automation and organizational change in a police force Time spent on administration* Phase 1 Phase 2 Position Before After After Inspector 58 22 N/K Sergeant ' 50 20 N/K Constable 21 4 1 Detective Constable 24 N/A 4 Detective Sergeant 24 N/A 4 * These figures are approximations based on graphs produced by the Audit Commission, 1988. (N/K = not known, N/A = not applicable). From a strategic perspective, savings such as these are highly significant. Not only do they hold the potential to reduce the costs of public service activities they also permit the release of professional staff from mundane aspects of their work. In this way public service professionals are able to attend to their public service duties more effectively and the strategic goals of the organization can be better realized. Issues of organizational change and public accountability in an information polity These five themes of the information polity -- the adoption and diffusion of ICTs, the 'informatization' of public services, the provision of information by government, the changing labour process in government, and the growing usefulness of information as a strategic resource in government -converge, and in so-doing manifest two further sets of issues. The first of these concerns organizational changes which, as these themes in the information polity are concretized, are gradually transforming the institutions of public administration. The second set of issues concerns questions of public accountability as the core values of traditional public administration are edged aside by those emerging from within the information polity. 158 There is now considerable evidence that information resources (that is, technical infrastructure based upon computer networking plus new information systems) are leading to new organizing opportunities for strategic decision-makers in public organizations. Pre-existing arguments that computing was a source of centralization or decentralization (for example, Leavitt and Whisler, 1958) have given way to arguments based more in the complexity of organizational phenomena, which see new information resources as being suffused into the strategic and political structures of the organization with the degree of centralization being contingent upon the interplay of those structures rather than upon information resources per se (for example, Robey, 1977; Rose, 1988). At the formal level of the organization computer networked information systems create numerous opportunities for transformation: at a macro level related to overall design; at a meso level related to middle range issues over, for examples horizontal organizational integration; and at a micro level related to the detail of organizational routines. At each level new information systems can be viewed as organizational integrators, facilitating from a strategic perspective appropriate 'loose-tight' structures (Peters and Waterman, 1982). Present changes occurring in the Department of Social Security (DSS) provide a good example of where new information resources have been part of a profound reconceptualization of overall organizational design. In the DSS the increasing ability to separate physically the front and back-office functions of the organization is beginning to provide the Department with a new geographical identity (Adler and Sainsbury, 1989; Public Accounts Committee, 1989; Willcocks and Mason, 1987). Emerging from within the 'operational strategy' of the DSS is that the department will enhance and improve its city and town-centre presence in terms of front-office (that is, customer-facing) activities and that these offices will be supported 'across the wires' by locationally separate large back offices. The DSS outlets in London, for example, are to be supported from Glasgow in this way. Changes of this kind reshape the organization spatially, creating new forms of organizational integration geographically. Information resources are also perceived at the strategic level as a force for horizontal organizational integration, challenging functional specialization and separation. Thus, for example, the Butler-Sloss inquiry (1988) into the incidence of child-abuse in Cleveland in the UK made specific reference to the need for improved information (including shared information) by the professionals involved -- health services, social services and police. It is clear that shared information systems of this kind can open up the possibility for profound organizational changes as professional boundaries come to be challenged in favour of client (or customer-centred forms of operational integration. An example of organizational change occurring at the micro level of the organisation as a consequence of the development of information resources emerges from issues of systems design and development. Systems development requires deep understanding of the basis of organizational processes (Muid, 1989). As such, new systems can come to challenge the hidden assumptions and meanings of workers which themselves iterate with the culture of the organization. Thus, for example, a large UK-based telecommunications company 'discovered' in developing new management systems that no less than seven definitions of the working week co-existed in the company. In developing a large multi-functional new information system a single definition was required, ultimately leading to repatterning of working schedules throughout the company. If information systems are viewed as embodying the meaning systems of the organizations then it is clear that in processes of systems design these meanings will be threatened and even changed and, with that, the culture of the organization reshaped. From these examples it can be seen that with the emergence of the information polity there will be considerable re-casting of government organization giving rise to many issues. Many of these relate to the complexity of organizations -- resistance to change, and the organizational politics of these transformation processes. Other issues relate more to the design of new information systems. If these new systems are seen as challenging profoundly the cultural norms of the organization then whose cultural norms are being introduced? External consultants are being used by many government agencies in these development processes. To what extent are long-standing organizational assumptions being replaced by new ones 'imported' from systems professionals (Coombs et al, 1988). Finally, if as seems to be occurring, the spatial configuration of government is changing as the information polity unfolds then the issue arises of which places (that is, regions and cities) will benefit from such changes and which will lose. Relocating professional labour resources will have different regional impacts than relocating clerical work. Working across the wires is not therefore a spatially neutral activity. Rather it embodies profound consequences for economic development with its potential for both reinforcing or challenging existing geographical inequalities. Each of the themes of the information polity, together with the profound organizational changes which new information systems are facilitating in government organizations, combine with deep processes of trans- 159 formation in the core values of public administration to produce challenges to established, traditional forms of public accountability. Table 8 captures these changes, illustrating through a four-part analytical scheme the basic elements of the shifting principles of government accountability. Table 9. From public administration to an information polity - changing principles hidden 3 which J ization. | |H Public administration Information Polity WKL 1- Uniformity of provision - the Targetted provision -- the nunica- | |H administrative principle business principle g new | 1MI 2. Hierarchical structure -- Loose-tight structures- seven J ÉM //?(? control principle the network management in the j principle ial new 1 ^H 3. Division of work -- ^ Integration of work- the quired, 4 WÊk functional principle coordinative/collaborative ifftrlcincr '-* m principle o 1 ^Bl 4. Paternalistic relationships-- Responsive relationships rnation I Wm the prof essional principle to customers and citizens ystems 1 esses of | -- the 'wholeperson'principle Firstly, in traditional public administration a key principle has been directed to the delivery of uniformity in public policy provision. New information capabilities are now facilitating more directed provision and, in consequence, the longstanding administrative principle is giving way to a business principle wherein the focus is upon the relationships of governments to individual 'customers' and citizens. Secondly, public administration has traditionally laid great emphasis upon hierarchical control. The structures of government including its geography reflect this principle with a pyramidical emphasis throughout government, reporting upon and accounting for government activity upwards in the system. Once more, however, a shift is occurring away from this highly explicit principle of control and towards one emphasising the complex and multi-organizational setting of public policy-making and implementation which stresses the concept of the 'organizational network' and which sees government as managing such networks. Structures both inter- and intra-organizational, appear as simultaneously looser than hitherto, as high degrees of operational autonomy are introduced, and tighter, as this is conjoined with more strategic emphasis in management. Thirdly, public administration has been traditionally constructed upon functional division and specialist departments have operated largely independently of each other in this context. The customer/client focus, faciliated considerably through the creation of new flows of information, begins to create a new emphasis, however, upon coordination and collaboration. Not, however, coordination and collaboration within a corporate management style of government but within a customer/client focus. Within the information polity the customer provides the focus for coordination and collaboration rather than the management team or the policy committee. Fourthly, and intimately linked to the third element, there is the movement away from professionalized paternalism and towards greater degrees of customer and client responsiveness in public service. In the information polity the client/user/passenger/tenant/ subscriber is increasingly viewed as the 'customer', with multiple and differentiated needs and requirements which government attempts to meet. The professional principle which effectively segmented the individual citizen is thus replaced by what has come to be referred to as the 'whole person' concept. The information polity can therefore be seen as embracing a new set of principles for government. In so doing the information polity signals changes in the nature and basis of public accountability. In short, public accountability is shifting from a concept which simultaneously stressed upward and inward looking bureaucracy (that is, to its own internal procedures and to political superiors) to one where the emphasis is more outward and downward (that is, to a complex operational environment and to its customer base). Conclusion The core argument of this article has been that a new form of governance is emerging in the UK which might usefully be termed an 'information polity'. By examining the concept of information polity through the identification of specific themes we have seen that a number of changes is occurring within government organizations, including the widespread adoption and diffusion of ICTs; the 'informatization' of public services; increasingly, the provision of information by government organizations; changes in the labour process in government contingent upon IGTs; and new strategic positioning of government organizations to which information flows are central. Moreover, the combined effects of these developments are opening up opportunities for organizational innovation and for the recasting of the norms of public administration and the processes of public accountability. The 'information polity' is therefore a concept that not only captures in a coherent manner the current change processes Within government but also provides a framework for understanding them. 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