The Internet promises vast changes in American government that range from Internet voting to interactive online services for the public to virtual diplomacy. As a vehicle for disjunctive change in communication, coordination, and control, the Internet and related information technologies make possible new and exciting developments in operations, regulation, and enforcement. In spite of its revolutionary power, the potential benefits of the Internet, and its potential perils, will be strongly influenced by the current organizations and institutions of government, for it is within the constraints posed by these structural arrangements that government actors make decisions and information networks that connect to form the World Wide Web are designed, developed, and used.

One of the most intriguing and important questions for scholars and practitioners concerns the structural transformation currently taking place within and across government agencies, the part of government political scientists refer to as the bureaucracy. The intrigue stems from the potential for developing new organizational arrangements that will use the information-processing potential of the Internet and related information technologies. The importance for government arises because such a fundamental change in the structure of bureaucracy bears on central concepts of governance such as accountability, task specialization, and jurisdiction.

Some theorists and futurists have suggested replacements for bureaucracy, including networks, markets, and even self-organizing systems. Approximately a decade ago, as the Internet began to be widely used, others suggested that the nation-state itself would be replaced by a variety of subnational, supranational, and transnational forms of governance. For the foreseeable future, at least the next twenty-five years, it is unlikely that bureaucracy will be superceded by other forms of organization. Moreover, evidence is accumulating that the nation-state not only retains its importance but has taken on new roles as globalization continues. If a new dominant form is emerging to replace bureaucracy, it is not evident just what it is.

Looking back in time, it is useful to place bureaucracy and the modern American state in historical context. The modern American state is a child of the industrial revolution. As the political scientist Stephen Skowroneck has observed, the American bureaucratic state was built from a nation of parties and courts. It was born during the final decades of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. Although the term bureaucracy has come to connote much that is inefficient and ineffective about government, it is important to remember that bureaucracy replaced patronage appointments with a professional civil service and, through a protracted series of political negotiations, substituted merit for political loyalty as the key measure of fitness for employment in the professional public service.

There is little theory and no coherent research program within the discipline of political science that seeks to account for the potential or likely effects of major changes in information processing on the bureaucracy. This silence is curious given that during the past two decades, in popular writing and in political practice, many actors have been engaged in "breaking down," "abolishing," and "bashing" bureaucracy. Indeed, the stillness of political scientists on this matter has contributed to a verbal sleight of hand. Rather than use the term bureaucracy in its accurate meaning, political and media actors have shifted its definition to mean an organizational form productive of a set of inferior, outmoded processes and outputs. It is not even clear whether one should speak in terms of a postbureaucratic government or of an evolutionary adaptation, or modernization, of bureaucracy.

Political science requires a theory of bureaucracy that accounts for far-reaching, fundamental advances in informational processing and a sustained, coherent research program to develop such a theoretical perspective. This chapter outlines the elements of such a research program. It is difficult to argue against the importance and centrality of the bureaucratic form throughout twentieth-century American government. The structure and its constituent processes are largely responsible for the production of binding collective decisions and coordination of policy implementation. If changes in information technology have serious implications for bureaucracy, then theorists must account for such a modification in underlying assumptions regarding information processing.

A useful starting point for a theory of informational-based bureaucracy is provided within current bureaucratic and organizational theory. At minimum, an adequate theory must offer guidance to structure systematic research efforts. It should direct the attention of theorists to aspects of the terrain that are important. For the moment, I put aside the requirement for predictive power. Let us first decide on the variables of importance. Adequate theory also guides development of new policy tools, including organizational and program, design, to foster improvements in government performance, accountability, and responsiveness.

It is impossible to sensibly discuss how information technology affects the bureaucratic paradigm without returning to the roots of that paradigm, the Weberian bureaucracy. This approach, although less exciting than intellectual excursions into cyberspace and sweeping speculations on the society of the future, provides an important starting point for the development of theory.