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"Serial no. 97-62." ; CIS Microfiche Accession Numbers: CIS 82 S261-1 ; Microfiche. ; Mode of access: Internet.

Cover -- The State, Technology and Industrializationin Africa -- Contents -- List of Tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I The Bureaucratic Choice Of Techniques -- 1 The Growth and Technological Performance of Public Sector Institutions -- 2 The Bureaucratic Choice of Techniques: Textiles in Tanzania -- 3 The Irrelevance of Ideology in the Public Sector: A Comparison of Kenya and Tanzania -- 4 Bureaucratic versus Economic Man: A Note on Power Alcohol Production in Kenya and Zimbabwe -- 5 Appropriate Technology in the Public Sector -- 6 Foreign Aid and the Bureaucratic Choice of Techniques -- PART II The Political Economy Of Bureaucracy -- 7 The Political Economy of Bureaucracy: A Public Choice Perspective -- 8 The Centralized African State and its Implications for Technological Behaviour in the Public Sector -- Index.

It is hard to overstate the impact of digital transformation on democracies and the daily lives of citizens around the world. The developing world is coming online at an extraordinary pace; there are places in which NDI works that are receiving the most significant innovation of the 20th century – electrification – at the same time as that of the 21st – instant global communications. Past technology revolutions such as the printing press or broadcast media have transformed democracy and politics in rapid, profound, and hard to anticipate ways. While disruptive, innovations can reinforce existing power structures: dominant languages are magnified; usage reflects traditional gender imbalances surveillance is automated. Recognizing this incredible rate of change, NDI is changing the toolkit of approaches we use in our programs, embracing new forms of political engagement, and changing the ways we manage the nuts and bolts of international development.
Technology is as much a social, economic, and political phenomenon as it is code or engineering. The democracy community, therefore, cannot afford to treat it as a single issue and must approach it with a nuanced understanding of the range of ways it is changing society and democracy:
The internet has become critical infrastructure for democracy, – and it is under attack. Organizing, advocacy, and political communication are increasingly digital, and so preserving a democratic internet is core to the success of all other social change goals - however, many of the trends are negative. The internet needs to be accessible and available to all, free of unjustified censorship, surveillance, or punitive taxes. Organizations need to be able to maintain a digital presence without fear of having their content destroyed or confidential data shared. An information space choked with disinformation and the chilling effects of hate speech robs individuals of informed choice. The digitization of all human activity as data creates new potential for authoritarians to track citizens and perpetuate discriminatory systems. Incredible power is now vested in the hands of the major technology platforms. Through NDI's work with the Design 4 Democracy Coalition, grassroots civic groups around the world are working together to ensure that the technology sector plays a role in supporting democracy.
Policymakers and citizens need to be better informed. Making the internet safe for democracy requires supportive digital policy at the global, corporate and domestic level. Legislators and political leaders are often lacking in basic knowledge of technology to regulate them appropriately or to procure tech; easy solutions often include subsidized Chinese surveillance state-in-a-box tools or commercial offerings that may turn around and monetize citizen data. Tech companies may not understand the impacts of their products. Too often, new regulation is used as a trojan horse for anti-democratic legislation, as with cybersecurity or "fake news." Successful political engagement in the internet age requires digital literacy of citizens: effectively using tools, understanding rights, keeping themselves safe, and to be intelligent consumers of information. As with most things in the technology space, the details of the topic may be new but the concept is not; NDI has always focused on education on citizen's rights in a democracy and how to engage with existing power structures.
New forms of democracy, governance and citizen engagement are possible. There are radically new capabilities for partners who are pillars of democracy using new communication systems, more data applied in radically different ways, and new ways to gather and sort citizen preferences. Further, new forms of human organization have emerged, such as Hong Kong's leaderless protest movement, that would have been impossible without the internet. Any new innovations, even if well-meant, will have unintended consequences that NDI and partners need to be able to foresee and if possible avoid. Other technologies will may provide compelling features for citizens or governments -- but entrap them with built-in surveillance capabilities, the monetization of citizen data by corporations, or new forms of government control. NDI works with civic innovators around the world, including shepherding the Code for All Network and engaging with leaders who are building new forms of citizen engagement such as Audrey Tang in Taiwan.
Tech specifics matter but there are no easy solutions. The difference between an accurate understanding of how a technology works instead of a general one can make the difference between having a positive impact and an extremely negative one. Often, emergent technologies are misunderstood based on conceptual oversimplification or slick sales pitches. Given the trend toward integrated data, mass surveillance, and ever more powerful analysis tools, it is critical for organizations that hope to make change or mitigate democratic harm to have the ability to understand technical specifics. Conversely, changemaking organizations must be wary of tech solutionism and create internal capacity to tie technology to mission. The complexity of technology requires cultivating relationships with new actors, including academic institutions and corporations – but communicating with them requires mastery of the technology under discussion, the ability to speak to them in their language, and to engage at their cadence. The internet is privately owned, from cables in the ground to the servers on which systems run to the devices in our pockets and the apps sitting on them. Therefore, tech firms are critical to the conversation -- though engagement does not imply approval of all their activities.
Change will continue. A new range of technologies such as AI, augmented reality, voice assistants and ubiquitous sensors are here today. When widely applied, this new generation of tools will continue to reshape politics and the relationships between citizens and their governments. In the period when they are emerging, there is time to mitigate foreseeable negative consequences and aid positive ones.
Conclusion. It can be tempting to ignore the technology transformations sweeping the world in the context of international development and democracy, attempting to continue with traditional programs. Alternatively, one can look at technology as an unalloyed evil, focusing on the negatives and attempting to push back in as many ways as possible. NDI has taken a more realistic approach. The tech revolution is here to stay, and the pace of change will only continue. As our lives change based on the tools we use, so does the nature of democracy – and the threats it faces. NDI will continue engaging with our partners on the ground and helping them build more just societies based on the realities of life in the digital age.


Women in Zambia during the 2016 General Elections.

Democracy and Technology, #NDI #National Democratic Institute #democracy #technology

Cover page -- Halftitle page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Frontispiece -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- CHAPTER 1 FEUDALISM IN AFRICA? -- CHAPTER 2 POLITY AND THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION -- CHAPTER 3 POLITY AND THE MEANS OF DESTRUCTION -- CHAPTER 4 POLITY AND RITUAL: THE OPPOSITION OF HORSE AND EARTH -- CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES -- INDEX

This publication is a comprehensive report on the government allocations and expenditure and performance of S&T and R&D in the public sector. The report is published annually. The science and technology activities covered include research and development, training, education and information; technology transfer and technical services (including information and advice)

"Just as space, territory and society can be socially and politically co-constructed, so can water, and thus the construction of hydraulic infrastructures can be mobilised by politicians to consolidate their grip on power while nurturing their own vision of what the nation is or should become. This book delves into the complex and often hidden connection between water, technological advancement and the nation-state, addressing two major questions. First, the arguments deployed consider how water as a resource can be ideologically constructed, imagined and framed to create and reinforce a national identity, and secondly, how the idea of a nation-state can and is materially co-constituted out of the material infrastructure through which water is harnessed and channelled. The book consists of 13 theoretical and empirical interdisciplinary chapters covering four continents. The case studies cover a diverse range of geographical areas and countries, including China, Cyprus, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Nepal and Thailand, and together illustrate that the meaning and rationale behind water infrastructures goes well beyond the control and regulation of water resources, as it becomes central in the unfolding of power dynamics across time and space."--Provided by publisher.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Science and Technology: Public Image and Public Policy -- The 1930s Reevaluation of Science -- Policy and a Philosophy of Science and Technology -- Logical Empiricism: The Philosophical Ideal -- The Philosophical Ideal: Policy Implications -- Science and Technology: The New Synthesis -- Historical Approach to Science and Technology -- The New Synthesis: Policy Implications -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Selected Readings -- 2. A Double Wedding: Science and Government, Knowledge and Power -- World War II and the Politics of Science -- Postwar Honeymoon -- Science and Policy from 1945 to 1968: NSF -- Science Policy After Apollo -- Reviving Science: Ford, Carter, and Reagan -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Selected Readings -- 3. Energy: Problems of Social Choice -- Energy, Ethics, and Politics -- DOE and an Equitable Policy for Energy -- Energy Policy, Leadership, and the Public -- Notes -- Selected Readings -- 4. Nuclear Power and Social Justice -- Nuclear Power in Midland -- Development of U.S. Nuclear Policy -- Ethics and Politics in Nuclear Policy -- Notes -- Selected Readings -- 5. Hazardous Waste: Assessing Risk -- Radwaste in New Mexico -- Radwaste in the United States -- Radioactive Waste Policy Since 1977 -- Risk and Responsibility in Policy Making -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Selected Readings -- 6. Communications Technology: Policy for a Wired Nation -- Development of Cable Communications -- Cable and the Law -- The Franchise Wars -- Cable and Constitutional Conundrums -- Cable and the Future -- Notes -- Selected Readings -- 7. Recombining Genes: Scientific Liberty and Public Safety -- Regulatory Tangle: NIH and Cambridge -- Courts and Corporations: DNA Policy After Cambridge -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Selected Readings.