Policy Design Spaces in Brazil's and Argentina's Digital Government

Abstract

The article aims to investigate the development of the digital transformation agenda in Latin America to understand which factors have been essential for countries to achieve effectiveness in their policy design. We conducted a qualitative study based on document analysis and interviews with public managers in Brazil and Argentina. We found that both countries have developed policies to build the digital government agenda since 2015. We identify the growing political prestige the agenda has gained within each country and the institutional support of organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). However, technical capacity challenges must be addressed, especially in retaining qualified human resources within the state bureaucracy. The article argues that the design space framework, although sharp, fails to embrace features of the Latin American context, such as the brain drain and the inability of the state to retain highly qualified professionals.