Governance for the Digital World: Neither More State nor More Market

“This enlightening book provides unique insights into the governance of the digital world, and the impact of that digital world on governance of the economy and society.”

 ―B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of American Government, Pittsburgh University, USA, and Former President of International Public Policy Association (IPPA)

 “Well-researched, this book is insightful and constructive. Broadly defining institutions as an ecosystem of relationships, readers gain new perspectives on hard problems. A fast, worthwhile read!”

 ―Vinton Cerf, Internet pioneer, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google

 “Governance for the Digital World is a highly welcome contribution to the pursuit of good governance in what till some years ago was labeled unchartered territory in the world we are living in. It is high time to get more insight into the dilemmas, intricacies, predicaments, and, last but not least, the considerable opportunities offered by digital technologies and algorithms in particular. It is of the utmost importance that for that matter this book stresses the notion of the digital commons. Irrespective of the role of state and non-state actors, eventually digital technologies pervade the daily existence of all human beings. So good governance is not a matter of choice but sheer necessity. And, as the authors show in their in-depth analysis, good governance reaches beyond the do’s and don’ts of governments. It is also about the functions and interests of private corporations and small- and midsize businesses, non-governmental organizations, offline and online media, and the citizenry at large. I commend the authors for their inclusive approach to digital governance and self-governance. Their book is at the very heart of today’s pivotal debate on good governance in the digital world.”

―Uri Rosenthal, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Former Special Envoy for Cyber Diplomacy, and Chairman Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, Netherlands 

This book explores new frameworks, institutional arrangements, rules, and policies for governance of the digital world. As digitization rapidly intertwines the many dimensions of society, billions of people have witnessed a quiet and seamless integration of the Internet, software, platforms, algorithms, and digital devices into their daily lives, as well as into many forms of governance and decision making in the public and private sectors. The new technologies require new norms and practices to govern the digital world. This is the challenge addressed by this book: How can society create institutions that govern the digital world in a way that is beneficial to society? This book explores answers―still initial and provocative―to this central question. The reflections presented in this book have a theoretical and conceptual nature borrowed from different fields of science toidentify the main challenges for the governance of the digital world.

Fernando Filgueiras is Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy and Master of Public Policy Program, Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), Brazil. He is also Professor in the Master of Governance and Development Program at the National School of Public Administration (ENAP), Brazil. He is Researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology (INCT)–Digital Democracy, Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). He served as a director for Research and Graduate Studies of the National School of Public Administration, Brazil. He also served as a dean for the School of Philosophy and Human Sciences at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Filgueiras has a PhD in Political Science from the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro (Iuperj). His research interests include governance, digital governance, political corruption, and bureaucracy and public policy. He is author and co-author of books dealing with democracy, state, and political corruption.

 

Virgilio Almeida is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. He is also a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, USA. He has held visiting positions at several other universities and research labs, including New York University, Harvard University, Boston University, Santa Fe Institute, and HP Research Labs. Almeida was the National Secretary for Information Technology Policies of the Brazilian government from 2011 to 2015. He was the chair of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee from 2011 to 2016. He was  the chairman of NETmundial  - Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance, held in São Paulo, Brazil in 2014. He was one of the commissioners of the Global Commission for the Stability of Cyberspace (cyberstability.org). Almeida has a PhD in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University. His research interests focus on social computing, ethics, algorithms, and modeling and analysis of large-scale distributed systems. He is the co-author of five books dealing with Web technologies, e-commerce, performance modeling, and capacity planning, published by Prentice Hall and  translated into  Korean and Russian.