ABSTRACT
Introduction In Chapter 3, I reflected on the relation between information and communication technologies and the macro level. It has been shown that the relevance of ICTs stretches beyond changes in public administration, and leads to a reappraisal and repositioning of the idea of government. Having said this, this does not imply that ICTs do not have ramifications for public administration itself. In this chapter, I therefore focus on the relation between ‘smart machines’, as I have called ICTs in Chapter 2, and the idea of ‘bureaucracy’. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the ideal type of bureaucracy has had a strong influence upon the organization of public administration. This has occurred both in a rhetorical, normative sense, as well as in the practice of administrative and political life.
