Suchergebnisse

This book situates information technology at the centre of public policy and management. IT is now a vital part of any government organisation, opening new policy windows and enabling a vast range of tasks to be carried out faster and more efficiently. But it has also introduced new problems and challenges. Four in-depth case studies demonstrate how information systems have become inextricably linked with the core tasks of governmental organisations. The key government departments examined are:* the Inland Revenue Service and Social Security Administration in the US* the Inland Revenue.

This article engages with the methods content in Dowding's book, examining the underlying assumptions regarding political science methodology and data and arguing that these issues deserve a more central role. In particular, the new possibilities for generation and analysis of large-scale data sources from political activity is driving methodological change, requiring a variety of multi-disciplinary expertise, and presenting new ethical challenges. Expansion of the toolkit of political science methodologies to incorporate the growing field of computational social science, or social data science, draws new scientists into the analysis of politics – such as mathematicians, computer scientists and physicists – who bring their own philosophy and practice of theory building, explanation and approach, which may shape the discipline in the future.