Jane Fountain, Distinguished Professor of political science and public policy and department chair of political science, delivered a lecture, “Using Technology to Change Public Administration,” at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 8.

Fountain presented some of the latest innovations in digital government, focusing on developments in Punjab, Pakistan, and in the United States federal government. Her lecture examined the limitations and potential of information technology as one tool of many to build state capacity, particularly in less developed countries.

The lecture was part of the Innovating Bureaucracy conference organized at the bank following the release of the 2017 World Development Report on Governance and the Law.

The conference also builds on the creation of the bank’s ‘Bureaucracy Lab,’ aimed at launching a new generation of reforms in public administration through a renewed appreciation of political economy, greater use of experimentation and adaptation in reform initiatives, and micro-level diagnostics based on extensive primary data on public officials and the civil service worldwide.