| Summary: | When one set of social actors passes functions, knowledge of techniques and control of implementation in their key role areas to other actors there could be a number of possible causes and consequences. Some such transfers of control are mutually beneficial, a simple re-division of labour which acknowledges a changing social or environmental context or just the shifting balance of the preferences and priorities amongst the actors involved. But other transfers of control are less innocent and more ‘coerced’, with powers surrendered under pressure and their transfer carrying with it significant feed-through implications for future interactions, and possible ratcheteffects. This paper explores a critical area of this kind for the modern liberal democratic state, the out-sourcing of information and communications technologies (ICTs) from in-house provision by single-country government bureaucracies to multi-national service delivery and system integration companies. We consider first the extent and patterning of conventional ICT out-sourcing in the UK at central government level. Part 2 examines some key possible of the causes and consequences of the out-sourcing trend, and of the significance of a new and general public/private sector interface. The final section is more prospective, arguing that established patterns of control over ICTs have major implications for the transformation of governance now underway in advanced industrial countries towards a ‘digital state’ form, centred on Web-based public services.
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