The article reviews the monograph Digit and Power: Digital Technologies in Public Administration published by Slobotchikov O.N., Kozlov S.D., Shatokhin M.V., Popova S.A. and Goncharenko A.N. in the Institute of World Civilizations in 2020 in the context of Russian and international studies of public administration digitalization.
The monograph analyses the current stage of government digitalization in Russia based on the results achieved at the previous stages of information society development, both in Russia and abroad. Significant attention is paid to the issues of legal regulation of digital technologies and the prospects of their application not only in public service delivery but also for regulatory enforcement and control functions. The monograph sets out principles and criteria for implementing digital control instruments. The study contributes to the on-going academic discussion of results and risks of public administration digitalization.
The review supports the position of authors on the need of further development of the legal and regulatory basis for public administration digitalization. However, attention should be paid both to eliminating legal restrictions to public administration digitalization and to monitoring and evaluating the application of such regulation in practices, especially given the risks associated with government digital transformation.