The Politics of Public Debt Management Among Rising Hegemonies and the Role of ICT: Implications for Theory and Practice for 21st Century Polities

Abstract

While scholars like Wogu and Misra unanimously affirmed the beneficial roles of adopting AI powered ICT systems in various sectors of government and endeavours, most countries in OECD and the Commonwealth - for reasons described as ‘a political reckless attitude' - have shied away from fully adopting and implementing intelligent debt management systems for their country's financial sectors, hence, the looming debt crisis hanging over them. Premised on the Public Choice theory, the study adopts Marilyn's Ex-post facto research design and Creswell's mix-method research approaches to interrogate the arguments proffered for and against the public debt management and the benefits of ICT, with a view to identifying the nexus that exists between the politics of debt management crisis and the role of ICT for 21st-century polities. The article identified a high degree of political rascality amongst political elites and a lackadaisical will towards the full implementation of intelligent debt management systems in the countries with looming debt crisis. Viable recommendations were proffered.