Book Description

The growth and proliferation of technology in American society places new demands on the U.S. government and the health of its democracy, affecting both policymaking and public administration. Technology and American Democracy explores the underpinning democratic theories, including constitutional justifications, that guide decision makers during the application of Information Technology (IT) in governance to promote democratic principles such as transparency and accountability. The book examines the capacity of IT to facilitate deliberative democracy, alter modern bureaucratic structures and functions, and affect areas of public policy including public budgeting and performance measurement.

Author Anthony Trotta demonstrates the ways in which technology creates new problems for contemporary government, including a discussion of virtual currency and its possible issues that must be addressed by the public sector. The discussion avoids highly technical language and confusing industry jargon, focusing instead on explaining important concepts in an accessible fashion, applicable to a broad spectrum of readers. Technology and American Democracy is required reading for students enrolled in courses on politics, public administration, and public policy.

Critics’ Reviews

"Anthony Trotta has significantly elevated the discourse on a core tension in American public policy: expert knowledge vs. participatory democracy. Technological determinism—rational, unbiased, efficient—is widely assumed to be the overarching architecture of American progress. Trotta, however, broadens and deepens our understanding of public policy tensions via a deep analysis of deliberative democracy—politically oriented, participatory, discursive—that is grounded in an inherent and growing mistrust of government. As such, he presents a valuable framework for understanding the critical and enduring tensions that are enduring threats to American society along political fault lines such as: technological remediation of global warming vs. public resistance to lifestyle disruptions, public health interventions to confront pandemics vs. discomfort with vaccines and stringent shutdowns, and  the value of government-issued money vs. cryptocurrencies. Trotta’s Technology and American Democracy is a welcome addition to university studies and policy debates across economics, technology, political science, cultural studies and beyond."

Marc Holzer, Distinguished Research Professor at Suffolk University-Boston; Founding Dean of the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University; Elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration; Past-President of the American Society for Public Administration