This could appear just theory but, in fact, we all know that it is not true, that if we ignore it our thinking will be wrong in its own basics.

The question of ICT applied to local governments can be paradigmatic. How will ICT change the bargaining power of locals vs centrals? Answer is not a simple one: it depends on the combination of two diverse driving forces which go in opposite direction. And such a combination will continuously change and greatly differ according to the ability of the human beings to cope with the innovation.

The Power of Information

First driving of change is that the Internet is likely to make significantly smaller the biggest competitive advantage of Central Power. Thesis sounds straightforward

1)     Information is power and central government used to have a competitive advantage as opposed to local government because of a natural easier access to such a source of power however

2)     Internet makes costs of accessing (and sharing and processing) much smaller therefore

3)     Internet does change in favour of local level the optimal distribution of power and competences.

We can even make an example. Let’s take for instance the crucial case of establishing and controlling the budget of a State. There was a time when this could be achieved only centrally and this was based mainly because of how information distribution needed to work in a pre internet age. Policy maker needed to receive all the information on taxation and expenses of the previous year and this could be done only sending all numbers to a single place which could gather all data and centrally elaborate the Budget. There was simply no other option. Internet is, in this case, a breakthrough because it has created an entirely new possibility to have everybody sending to everybody else its own data, and thus thousands (assuming thousands being the number of Government cost centres) times thousands of communications be circulated at cost and time close to nil. And not only we have suddenly increased of many folds our capacity to communicate, we have also multiplied by a very big factor our capacity of processing information: we can, in fact, even replace the Central Budget Office numbers crunching with a software which can incorporate political criteria (and constraints) into algorithmes. In other words it is now technically possible for the budget to be established without anybody being The Centre. It is, as we all know, a technical possibility very far from getting real, but should we even talk of a mere possibility the change is still very big[1].
However if theory sounds relatively unquestionable, reality does not follow promptly. Both because of problems of skills and structure and because of information overload. Moreover problems are even more “structural” and they have to do with a parallel gradual disappearance of some of the fundamental factors upon which the very local communities were based.

Stronger local governments within vanishing local communities

If ICT will probably mean an overall shift of power from central to local administrations, they will seriously challenge local governments and make them compete among them for customer (citizen) base. Locally based PAs who won’t realise it, may even find their (Inter) Net balance on the negative side.
Internet will, in fact, sooner or later shift information power not only from central to local level, but also from government itself to individuals. Healthcare, for instance, is one of the most relevant example of how public services dynamics are going to change. The Internet will mean at least the possibility of much more information and choice for everybody. Citizens will be informed on the offering of healthcare on a national, if not international, level and they will ask increasingly more for the possibility to choose and this will mean a significant increase in the number of people demanding to have their public services away from their home base. Therefore, a gradual disappearance of the healthcare providers whose performance is consistently below the average; a gradual focusing and specialisation of health care takers[2]. (hospitals and doctors alike) in the areas (could be specific pathologies) where their competitive advantage lay. We will probably see the end of the principle by which every citizen is supposed to have the right to access basic services within a certain number of miles and the change of such a fundamental will imply to radically redesign the format itself of the National Health Services. Such a reform will imply much more competition (and partnership) within public sector entities which operate on a local basis and a gradual but huge reallocation of human and financial resources

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So what is going to happen to Power layout? Is status and power of a given city council or a certain Local Health Care Unit going to increase or be reduced? Will be greater the driving force beyond the vertical decrease of accessing information at local level or the competition driven by the demand of the citizens free to have their public service provided away from their home base? In fact, both factors will have their profound effect in the way of building up Network Institutions. We will most likely see at the same time an erosion of power (and eventually even of the status) of central Institutions and at the same time local governments will increasingly compete (or partner) among them to get higher share of citizens asking for services. Times ahead will be, in any event, times of great opportunities and of challenges to all Institutions: they will soon discover that they do not hold any more a sort of divine right to make decisions in the name of everybody else. We will probably still have eighteenth century style debates whether current level of decentralisation is the right one, but reality will continue to go in a different direction. And Networked PAs will, probably, be - for all the above mentioned reasons – an exciting place to be, the place where much of the change Network Society requires will eventually happen.

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[1] And, in fact, extremely concrete consequences may follow sooner than we could expect if technological changes are coupled with political and economic transformations:  and even the Budget - which still one of the most important moment within Modern States life – may be challenged (not only by ICTs but also by things like globalisation and Euro) and radically change its nature.

[2] With again very important changes for consolidated local Institutions like the local hospital or the general pratictioner which will all have to seriously rethink their professional focus and geographical span.