The Impact of ICT on Policies, Politics, and Polities – An Evolutionary Economics Approach to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are shaping our everyday lives both as consumers as well as in the work place. But it is of a rather recent date that ICT also show a more than trivial impact on the political sphere, which is characterized by collective decision-making. Assessing the potential influence of ICT on policies, politics and polities thus is the focus of this paper. It becomes even more difficult, because ICT are not a set of uniform technologies, but consist of a number of separate technological components which are still evolving. This paper provides a clear conceptual approach in analyzing and evaluating the on-going processes of change at the different levels ICT brings about. By applying an evolutionary economics approach we discuss ICT in regard to its potential with respect to policies, politics and polities. We firstly ask what impact ICT have on policies as the outcome of the policy-making process under given political institutions. Secondly, we analyze what influence ICT have on the policy-making process itself, again assuming given political institutions defining this process. Finally, we also touch the question what impact ICT have on the underlying constitutional institutions, defining the polity. We conclude with a summary and an outlook on further research questions