BEYOND ‘E-GOVERNMENT’: INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITIES, BUREAUCRACY AND COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE IN THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE STATE
The promise of digital transformation in the Americas, as in different parts of the world, has strongly permeated state modernization agendas, from the national to the subnational level. However, accumulated empirical evidence reveals a heterogeneous picture: alongside successful experiences, failed processes, underused technologies and a deepening of access gaps persist. This symposium seeks to explore these experiences, recognizing that the digitalization of the State is not only a technical challenge, but a political and institutional one, linked to state capacities in the region.
Against managerialist approaches that reduce transformation to the implementation of technological solutions—”e-government” as an end in itself—this symposium proposes to move beyond that horizon to examine the structural factors that condition change in the public sector. The dialogue will be organized around three major analytical axes.
The first addresses institutional capacities as a condition for sustaining lasting transformations. Beyond digital infrastructure, qualified personnel, stable budgets, flexible regulatory frameworks and evaluation systems that allow for organizational learning and course correction are required. The tension between short-term political cycles and the construction of long-term capacities constitutes a central challenge. In contexts of generalized fiscal constraint across the Americas, the question is: how are these capacities built and preserved without depending on volatile exogenous dynamics?
The second axis focuses on bureaucracy, understood not as an obstacle to overcome, but as the true “interior” of the State where the success of reforms is determined. Administrative cultures, incentives and established routines can accelerate or hinder innovation. We invite examination of how street-level public officials negotiate, reinterpret and, at times, resist technological demands, altering expected outcomes through their discretion.
The third axis is collaborative governance, which introduces the participatory dimension. Digitalization cannot be designed apart from civil society: it requires rethinking the co-creation of services, citizen participation and accountability in digital environments. Given the profound inequalities and ethnic-territorial diversity of the Americas—from indigenous communities to dispersed rural areas—dialogue between the State and community organizations is essential to prevent digitalization from reproducing pre-existing exclusions.
From a comparative perspective, the symposium will address central questions: What capacities should be prioritized in contexts of fiscal fragility? Does digitalization empower citizens or deepen asymmetries? How can digital platforms be reconciled with traditional forms of organization? We seek to promote a debate that reflects on the performance of administrations, placing democratic quality and social inclusion at the center of the evaluation of digital change.
