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Danziger, J.N., Dutton, W.H., Kling, R., and Kraemer, K.L. (1982), Computers and
Politics: High Technology in American Local Governments (New York: Columbia
University Press).
Computers and Politics examines the control of and the interests served by
computers in American local governments. Focusing on questions of power and
influence, the authors evaluate the impacts of computing on government services and
management decision-making.
Four perspectives for understanding the politics of computing are explicated:
managerial rationalism, technocratic elitism, organizational pluralism, and
reinforcement politics. A central conclusion of this study is that computing reinforces
existing structures of control and prevailing biases within the government.
Since the publication of this book, 'reinforcement politics' has been widely adopted and
used to counter dominant perspectives on the inherently democratic biases of
electronic media like the personal computer and the Internet.
