Building better bureaucracy
We talk with technology expert Jennifer Pahlka about why government systems seem so bad — and how everyone can contribute to making them better.
Episode 247 of the Democracy Works podcast, hosted by Jennifer Pahlka, Michael Berkman, Candis Watts Smith, Jenna Spinelle, titled "Building better bureaucracy" was published on September 18, 2023 and runs 45 minutes.
September 18, 2023 ·45m · Democracy Works
Summary
We talk with technology expert Jennifer Pahlka about why government systems seem so bad — and how everyone can contribute to making them better.
Episode Description
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COVID-19 brought the problems with government technology into sharp focus. The systems responsible for delivering unemployment benefits and healthcare were not prepared to mange the influx of requests they received, and the government employees who run those systems were often hobbled by a culture that focuses on regulation and oversight, not innovation and acting quickly.
Beyond the day-to-day impacts of these systems not working, the long-term consequences include the erosion of trust in the institutions that comprise our democracy. So, what can we do? Jennifer Pahlka has a few ideas and she joins us this week to talk about them.
Pahlka is the author of Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. She is the former deputy chief technology officer of the United States and the founder of Code for America, a nonprofit that believes government can work for people in the digital age.
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