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Cyberocracy |
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Sociologyindex |
Sociology
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We have
heard of "technetronic society," and "computopia". Now the effects
that the information revolution is having on business and government gives the concept of
cyberocracy. Cyberocracy will include new forms of democratic, totalitarian, and hybrid
governments. Cyberocracy could also mean a bureaucracy changed by information technology.
Cyberocracy may also just be a symbolic and cultural name given to bureaucracy.
This term, from the roots "cyber-" and "-cracy,"
signifies rule by way of information. As it develops, information and its control will
become a dominant source of power, as a natural next step in man's political evolution. In
the past, under aristocracy, the high-born ruled; under theocracy, the high priests ruled.
In modern times, democracy and bureaucracy have enabled new kinds of people to participate
in government. In turn, cyberocracy, by arising from the current revolution in information
and communications technologies, may slowly but radically affect who rules, how, and why.
- CYBEROCRACY IS COMING - David Ronfeldt - 1992 Taylor & Francis - ISSN 0197-2243.
History is replete with their "-isms" and "-ocracies."
Feudalism, imperialism, capitalism, fascism, socialism, communism, theocracy, aristocracy,
democracy, bureaucracy--each historical age has created new ideas and institutional forms.
Most "isms" and "ocracies" of our day have existed for a long time.
Socialism and communism, once heralded as the waves of the future, have been around more
than a century. Capitalism and liberal democracy have endured much longer.
Throughout history, information has been essential to government, and
different types of governments may be distinguished by the ways in which they acquire,
process, transmit, and control information. Yet information per se has rarely been
considered a key organizing principle in theory or practice.[44] Cyberocracy implies that
information and its control will be elevated to a key principle.
The term needs to be defined. A precise definition is not possible at present, but in a
general sense cyberocracy may manifest itself in either or both of two ways:
narrowly, as a form of organization that supplants traditional forms of
bureaucracy and technocracy;
broadly, as a form of government that may redefine relations between
state and society, and between the public sector and the private sector.
Although the shape of a full-fledged cyberocracy remains obscure, it
should spell major changes in the nature and conduct of government. It should not mean
that a nation's intelligence services, think-tanks, media, or other sources of
informational power dominate government, although the information revolution has increased
their visibility and importance. The major impact will probably be felt in terms of the
organization and behavior of the modern bureaucratic state. |
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The first cyberocracies may appear as overlays on established bureaucratic forms of
organization and behavior, just as the new post- industrial aspects of society overlay the
still necessary industrial and agricultural aspects. Yet such an overlay may well begin to
alter the structure and functioning of a system as a whole. Just as we now speak of the
information society as an aspect of post-industrial society, we may someday speak of
cyberocracy as an aspect of the post-bureaucratic state. - David Ronfeldt in CYBEROCRACY
IS COMING - 1992 Taylor & Francis - ISSN 0197-2243.
Bureaucracy has spread throughout the public and private sectors of all modern
administrative systems. We thus continue using the vocabulary of the past to interpret the
present and speculate about the future. But technological and other innovations are
changing the world so rapidly, and so many more are on the horizon, especially in the
areas of information and communications, that we may soon need a new vocabulary of
concepts to comprehend the new age we are presumably entering--what is termed the
"post-industrial age" by some, the "information age" by others -
Daniel Bell, The Coming of Post- Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting,
Basic Books, New York, 1973 (with a new Foreword, 1976).
Cyberocracy is the new term here. Terms with "cyber-" as the prefix--e.g.,
cyberspace--are currently in vogue among some visionaries and technologists who are
seeking names for new concepts and realities related to the information revolution. The
prefix is from a Greek root, kybernan, meaning to steer or govern, and a related word,
kybernetes, meaning pilot, governor, or helmsman. The prefix was introduced by Norbert
Wiener in the 1940s in his works creating the field of "cybernetics" (a term
related to cybernetique, a French word meaning the art of government). Some readers may
object to my addition to the lexicon, but I prefer it to alternatives like the
"informatization" of government and the "informated" bureaucracy. In
my view, a good case exists for using the "cyber-" prefix, for it bridges the
concepts of information and governance better than any other available prefix or term.
Indeed, kybernan is also the root of the word "govern" and its extensions. -
David Ronfeldt.
Wriston, who has been praised for building Citibank into "the one institution that
understands that finance no longer has to do with money but with information," says
that new terms and concepts are needed.
Tom Forester (ed), The Micro Electronics Revolution: The Complete Guide to the New
Technology and Its Impact on Society, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1980;
Tom Forester (ed.), The Information Technology Revolution, The MIT Press, Cambridge,
Mass., 1985;
Tom Forester (ed.), Computers in the Human Context: Information Technology, Productivity,
and People, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1989.
David Ronfeldt, Cyberocracy, Cyberspace, and Cyberology: Political Effects of the
Information Revolution, P-7745,
RAND, Santa Monica, 1991.
Awful terms like "compunications," "technetronic society," and
"computopia" have already come and gone. James R. Beniger, The Control
Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1986.
Cyberocracy. The differences between a bureaucracy of the 20th century and a
cyberocracy of the information age highlight the importance of organizational adaptation.
Whereas bureaucracy forces and often limits information flow through defined channels
connecting discrete points, cyberocracy broadcasts large volumes of information among many
interested parties. Whereas bureaucracy emphasizes the hard quantitative skills of
programming and budgeting (like DoD's Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution
System), cyberocracy emphasizes soft skills such as policy management and understanding
culture and public opinion. Whereas bureaucracy observes traditional boundaries between
public and private sectors, cyberocracy breaks across these boundaries and allows for
mixing of public and private interests. Bureaucracies must transform into cyberocracies if
the new techniques of the information age are to take hold. - Sun Tzu Art of War in
Information Warfare. KNOWLEDGE STRATEGIES: BALANCING ENDS, WAYS, AND MEANS IN THE
INFORMATION AGE by Lieutenant Colonel William R. Fast, United States Army
"We will evolve into a Cyberocracy. Into the great machine - a neural net of
distributed nodes with vast processing power - will be fed yet more statistics, economic
trends, monitored results, demographic details, information culled from our ID cards,
spending patterns and ubiquitous CCTV cameras, audits by the Audit Office, and feedback
from consultations, not forgetting the results of the all-important opinion polls,
themselves conducted by text and email. Out will come further policies, spending
programmes and legislation." - David Savvides on Cyberocracy -
cyberium.co.uk/savv12.htm
Cyberocracy, cyberspace, and cyberology: political effects of the information revolution -
By David Ronfeldt
This paper considers how the information and communications technology revolution may
affect politics and government in the future. Besides reviewing the effects that the
information revolution is having on business and government, the author examines ways the
modern bureaucratic state may give way to the "cybercratic state"--one where
information is a key organizing principle--early in the twenty-first century. He
recommends the creation of a new field of study around the concept of information, and
suggests areas for future research. RAND Research - rand.org/pubs/papers/P7745/
Cyberocracy is coming - By: David Ronfeldt
Abstract - The Information Society 8 (4). The government world lags behind the business
world in feeling the effects of the information technology revolution and related
innovations in organization. But government may change radically in the decades ahead.
This essay fields a concept--cyberocracy--to discuss how the development of, and demand
for access to, the future electronic information and communications infrastructures (i.e.,
cyberspace) may alter the nature of the bureaucracy. Although it is too early to say
precisely what a cyberocracy may look like, the outcomes may include new forms of
democratic, totalitarian, and hybrid governments. Optimism about the information
revolution should be tempered by a constant, anticipatory awareness of its potential dark
side. - RAND Research - rand.org/pubs/reprints/RP222/
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