Nurturing Digital Government Reform: Nuggets of Wisdom From a Global Frontrunner

Abstract

Government reform initiatives increasingly incorporate significant digital elements. This article builds on successful, long-term Danish experiences with digital government reform and offers “nuggets of wisdom” to policymakers, organisations, and countries wishing to advance such reform. In international surveys, Denmark is consistently ranked as a global frontrunner in digital government. This article builds on a longitudinal case study of digital development paths in two digitally mature Danish policy domains: Civil registry administration and illness benefit reimbursement administration. Across the cases, we find that the development is characterised by multiple actors, as well as complex, non-linear and partly unpredictable paths. In both cases, technology arrangements are characterised by a long lifespan, producing a pattern of “cumulative complexity” where business processes, data, and technology become increasingly intertwined. This severely complicates effective strategic planning by policymakers. Taking these “real-life” experiences into consideration, we formulate six policy-making implications elaborated in several practitioner guidelines that represent best-practice recommendations for policymakers wishing to nurture possible roads to digitally mature government.