Double Bind: Governing the Economy in an ICT Era

In: Governance: an international journal of policy and administration, Band 25, Heft 1

Abstract

The recent financial debacle was preceded by a long complex evolution in the way firms created value and organized. The fragmentation of production, intense global competition, and the information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled transformation of services are all part of a story that was framed by, and in turn further framed, ideologies of deregulation and self-regulation. In the aftermath of the crisis political leaders worldwide find themselves in a heightened double bind. On one side, the demands for rules allowing experimentation and innovation are sharpened as growth and job creation are needed; on the other side, the demands are heightened for the state to act and regulate markets to prevent future crisis. The article focuses on the development of ICT, the main general-purpose technology of our time, and how the ways it allows value to be created interacted with the politics regulating uses and defining the winners and losers. Adapted from the source document.