A REVIEW OF RATIONALE FOR ALLOCATING COSTS AND PAYMENTS IN PRODUCING AND SUPPLYING PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION (PART A of 2 Parts – Chapters 1, 2 and 3) Dr John S Cook – 13 March 2011 Version [email protected] © 2011 Collaborative Research Centre – Spatial Information (CRC-SI2) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License . ABSTRACT This work reviews the rationale and processes for raising revenue and allocating funds to perform information intensive activities that are pertinent to the work of democratic government. ‘Government of the people, by the people, for the people’ expresses an idea that democratic government has no higher authority than the people who agree to be bound by its rules. Democracy depends on continually learning how to develop understandings and agreements that can sustain voting majorities on which democratic law making and collective action depends. The objective expressed in constitutional terms is to deliver ‘peace, order and good government’. Meeting this objective requires a collective intellectual authority that can understand what is possible; and a collective moral authority to understand what ought to happen in practice. Facts of life determine that a society needs to retain its collective competence despite a continual turnover of its membership as people die but life goes on. Retaining this ‘collective competence’ in matters of self-government depends on each new generation: • Acquiring a collective knowledge of how to produce goods and services needed to sustain a society and its capacity for self-government; • Learning how to defend society diplomatically and militarily in relation to external forces to prevent overthrow of its self-governing capacity; and • Learning how to defend society against divisive internal forces to preserve the authority of representative legislatures, allow peaceful dispute resolution and maintain social cohesion. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 15 1.3 KEY POINTS .................................................................................................................................. 17 2 OVERVIEW OF CONCEPTS AND THEMES ....................................................................................... 25 2.1 CONCEPTUAL AND TERMINOLOGICAL ISSUES ...................................................................... 25 2.1.1 Tacit and articulate knowledge .............................................................................................. 26 2.1.2 Knowledge production ........................................................................................................... 26 2.1.3 The scope of information and communication technology .................................................... 27 2.1.4 Typical information processes ............................................................................................... 28 2.1.5 Classification of knowledge work ........................................................................................... 28 2.1.6 Meanings of ‘data’.................................................................................................................. 29 2.1.7 Meanings of ‘information’ ....................................................................................................... 31 2.1.8 Icons as information .............................................................................................................. 31 2.1.9 Summary of conclusions regarding terminology and concepts ............................................. 33 2.2 THEMATIC OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................. 35 2.2.1 Fundamental purpose of government and need for information ........................................... 35 2.2.2 Economic factors in producing information ........................................................................... 41 2.2.3 Factors in supplying information ............................................................................................ 61 2.2.4 Paying for government information........................................................................................ 65 3 PURPOSE OF GOVERNMENT AND NEED FOR INFORMATION ..................................................... 67 3.1 THE INFORMATION DEPENDENCE OF GOVERNMENT ........................................................... 67 3.1.1 The nature of governance ..................................................................................................... 68 3.1.2 Automated systems ............................................................................................................... 69 3.1.3 Living systems ....................................................................................................................... 70 3.1.4 Self referential systems ......................................................................................................... 72 3.1.5 Novelty, corroboration and conflict in governance systems .................................................. 72 3.1.6 Authoritative information ........................................................................................................ 73 3.1.7 Unquestionable authority ....................................................................................................... 74 3.1.8 Influence of conflicting authority on public policy .................................................................. 75 3.1.9 Maintaining respect for authority ........................................................................................... 76 3.2 GOVERNANCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE ..................................................................... 77 3.2.1 Emergence of complexity ...................................................................................................... 79 3.2.1.1 Grades of complexity ....................................................................................................................... 80 3.2.1.2 Specialisation in observation and description .................................................................................. 82 3.2.1.3 Complexity in interconnectedness ................................................................................................... 83 3.2.1.4 Complexity through combination and interoperability....................................................................... 84 3.2.1.5 Complexity in multidisciplinary collaboration .................................................................................... 86 3.2.1.6 Complexity in resource allocation .................................................................................................... 96 3.2.1.7 Policy failure through failing to recognise complexity ....................................................................... 97 3.2.1.8 Spontaneous and purposive organisation ........................................................................................ 99 3.2.2 Strategies for coping with complexity .................................................................................. 102 3.2.2.1 Simplifying description of activities and identifying consistency of purpose ................................... 106 3.2.2.2 Being prepared in time to allow multidisciplinary communication .................................................. 109 3.2.2.3 The problem of limited vision in intractable problems .................................................................... 116 3.2.2.4 Increasing preparedness for foreseeable problems ....................................................................... 119 3.2.2.5 Avoiding unnecessary risks and distractions ................................................................................. 121 3.2.3 Consequences of failing to cope with complexity ................................................................ 123 3.2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 124 3.3 STRUCTURING OF INFORMATION TO ACHIEVE GOVERNANCE ......................................... 125 3.3.1 Authority regimes ................................................................................................................. 126 3.3.1.1 Particulars of legal entities ............................................................................................................. 127 3.3.1.2 Particulars regarding rights and obligations ................................................................................... 129 3.3.1.3 Particulars about places and tangible things .................................................................................. 129 3.3.1.4 Particulars about intangible things ................................................................................................. 130 3.3.2 Planning regimes ................................................................................................................. 131 3.3.2.1 The imagined deemed possible ..................................................................................................... 133 3.3.2.2 Science