Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Derecho Público "Dr. Humberto J. La Roche"
de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas de la Universidad del Zulia
Maracaibo, Venezuela
Esta publicación cientíca en formato digital es continuidad de la revista impresa
ISSN-Versión Impresa 0798-1406 / ISSN-Versión on line 2542-3185Depósito legal pp
197402ZU34
ppi 201502ZU4645
Vol.41 N° 79
Octubre
Diciembre
2023
Recibido el 11/05/23 Aceptado el 24/08/23
ISSN 0798- 1406 ~ De pó si to le gal pp 198502ZU132
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas
La re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas, es una pu bli ca ción aus pi cia da por el Ins ti tu to
de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co “Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che” (IEPDP) de la Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas de la Uni ver si dad del Zu lia.
En tre sus ob je ti vos fi gu ran: con tri buir con el pro gre so cien tí fi co de las Cien cias
Hu ma nas y So cia les, a tra vés de la di vul ga ción de los re sul ta dos lo gra dos por sus in ves-
ti ga do res; es ti mu lar la in ves ti ga ción en es tas áreas del sa ber; y pro pi ciar la pre sen ta-
ción, dis cu sión y con fron ta ción de las ideas y avan ces cien tí fi cos con com pro mi so so cial.
Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas apa re ce dos ve ces al año y pu bli ca tra ba jos ori gi na les con
avan ces o re sul ta dos de in ves ti ga ción en las áreas de Cien cia Po lí ti ca y De re cho Pú bli-
co, los cua les son so me ti dos a la con si de ra ción de ár bi tros ca li fi ca dos.
ESTA PU BLI CA CIÓN APA RE CE RE SE ÑA DA, EN TRE OTROS ÍN DI CES, EN
:
Re vicyhLUZ, In ter na tio nal Po li ti cal Scien ce Abs tracts, Re vis ta In ter ame ri ca na de
Bi blio gra fía, en el Cen tro La ti no ame ri ca no para el De sa rrol lo (CLAD), en Bi blio-
gra fía So cio Eco nó mi ca de Ve ne zue la de RE DIN SE, In ter na tio nal Bi blio graphy of
Po li ti cal Scien ce, Re vencyt, His pa nic Ame ri can Pe rio di cals In dex/HAPI), Ul ri ch’s
Pe rio di cals Di rec tory, EBS CO. Se en cuen tra acre di ta da al Re gis tro de Pu bli ca cio-
nes Cien tí fi cas y Tec no ló gi cas Ve ne zo la nas del FO NA CIT, La tin dex.
Di rec to ra
L
OIRALITH
M. C
HIRINOS
P
ORTILLO
Co mi té Edi tor
Eduviges Morales Villalobos
Fabiola Tavares Duarte
Ma ría Eu ge nia Soto Hernández
Nila Leal González
Carmen Pérez Baralt
Co mi té Ase sor
Pedro Bracho Grand
J. M. Del ga do Ocan do
José Ce rra da
Ri car do Com bel las
An gel Lom bar di
Die ter Nohlen
Al fre do Ra mos Ji mé nez
Go ran Ther born
Frie drich Welsch
Asis ten tes Ad mi nis tra ti vos
Joan López Urdaneta y Nil da Ma rín
Re vis ta Cues tio nes Po lí ti cas. Av. Gua ji ra. Uni ver si dad del Zu lia. Nú cleo Hu ma nís ti co. Fa-
cul tad de Cien cias Ju rí di cas y Po lí ti cas. Ins ti tu to de Es tu dios Po lí ti cos y De re cho Pú bli co
“Dr. Hum ber to J. La Ro che”. Ma ra cai bo, Ve ne zue la. E- mail: cues tio nes po li ti cas@gmail.
com ~ loi chi ri nos por til lo@gmail.com. Te le fax: 58- 0261- 4127018.
Vol. 41, Nº 79 (2023), 197-212
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Digitization of public authorities:
Global experience
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4179.13
Maksym Pendiura *
Alona Lukashenko **
Oksana Lapka ***
Valeriia Kryvenko ****
Denys Tykhomyrov *****
Abstract
The research focuses on the study of digitization processes at
the Ukrainian and international level as an innovation in public
management, as well as on the prospects for its implementation
in the processes of state formation and communication with civil
society. It was concluded that digitization of public authorities
should be harmonized with generally recognized international
standards, developed and adopted in the context of national
characteristics and traditions. Based on the assessment of global trends
in the development of digital technologies and the study of international
experience, the key areas of activity of public authorities in Ukraine were
determined, which can be taken as a basis by other developing countries,
with special emphasis on: decentralization, simplication, deregulation,
institutional capacity building and communication support.
Keywords: digitalization; e-democracy; state authorities; civil society;
digital technologies.
* Candidate of legal sciences, Associate Professor, Manager of the Department of Theory of State and
Law of National academy of Internal Aairs, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
3589-0184. Email: Macsim.ipad21@gmail.com
** Candidate of legal sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Public
Administration of National academy of Internal Aairs, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-7623-9144. Email: lukashenko.a.2017@gmail.com
*** Candidate of legal sciences, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory
of State and Law of National academy of Internal Aairs, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-7017-1273. Email: lapkaoksana1@gmail.com
**** Postgraduate student of the Department of Theory of State and Law of National academy of
Internal Aairs; Inspector of Department of Preventive Communication of Department of
Preventive Communication of General Directorate of the National Police in Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine;
ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4972-5195. Email: lerakryv@gmail.com
***** Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory of State and Law of
National academy of Internal Aairs, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORСID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8366-
8564. Email: beleg85@gmail.com
198
Maksym Pendiura, Alona Lukashenko, Oksana Lapka, Valeriia Kryvenko y Denys Tykhomyrov
Digitization of public authorities: Global experience
Digitalización de los poderes públicos:
Experiencia mundial
Resumen
La investigación se centra en el estudio de los procesos de digitalización
a nivel de Ucrania e internacional como innovación en la gestión pública,
así como en las perspectivas de su implementación en los procesos de
formación del Estado y de comunicación con la sociedad civil. Se concluyó
que la digitalización de las autoridades públicas debe armonizarse con
estándares internacionales generalmente reconocidos, desarrollados y
adoptados en el contexto de las características y tradiciones nacionales.
Sobre la base de la evaluación de las tendencias mundiales en el desarrollo
de tecnologías digitales y el estudio de la experiencia internacional, se
determinaron las áreas clave de actividad de las autoridades públicas en
Ucrania, que pueden ser tomadas como base por otros países en desarrollo,
con énfasis especial en: descentralización, simplicación, desregulación,
desarrollo de la capacidad institucional y apoyo a la comunicación.
Palabras clave: digitalización; democracia electrónica; autoridades
estatales; sociedad civil; tecnologías digitales.
Introduction
Modern society is characterized by signicant growth and active use
of digital technologies, which leads to the need for global modications of
many social processes. Digitization also aects the most important state-
legal institutions related to the formation of state authorities and the
exercise of public power, and through it, conditions are created that can
aect the type of modern representative democracy. The implementation
of relevant innovations can have a qualitative impact not only on certain
sources of state-management activity, but the use of relevant technologies
simplies and maximally reduces the cost of communication between the
state and the population in the eld of providing administrative services,
expression of will, administration of justice, etc.
Using information technologies in public administration with the
possibilities of nding alternative ways of entering data, performing
the functions of collecting, storing, processing, transferring and using
knowledge increases the eciency of public administration, which makes
it possible to nd the necessary resources for this. The serious impact of
digitalization is also felt on the functioning of the justice system, because
modern digital technologies provide the possibility of creating a digital
environment that can replace the system of individual bodies in the sphere
of activity of state authorities.
199
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 41 Nº 79 (2023): 197-212
Today, the vast majority of democratic countries in the world implement
the tools of electronic democracy for the formation of policies, the basis
of which are the relations between the state and civil society, based on
transparency and full trust of the two parties to each other. World leaders
in the development of e-democracy were able to reach its level when all
tools represent a single eective communication system that strengthens
and promotes the most eective two-way dialogue between the government
and society.
Thus, the digitization of state institutions and management processes
leads to the need to transform these institutions, and also poses new tasks
for society and the state, which cannot be solved by proven and known
methods (Togobytska, 2021), and the transfer of all public services to
electronic format and the use of the latest technologies to maximize the
eciency of the processes of providing public services is a key vector of the
development of many democracies of the world.
At the same time, scientists and practitioners highlight a number
of problems of the implementation of digitization at the national and
local levels: personnel shortage and the need to retrain old personnel
in accordance with new competencies; improvement of the system of
providing administrative services and digitization of most of them; the
imperfection of the legislative provision of digitization processes in the
context of decentralization, the need to expand the current legislative
framework; insucient technical and nancial support for the purpose of
integrating the latest technologies into one’s activities; corruption (Korzh,
2018; Nelipa, 2022).
The study of the world’s leading practices of the implementation of
electronic democracy will contribute to its development and application at
the national level, the determination of priority tasks of state policy in order
to optimize the mechanisms of public dialogue and institutions of direct
democracy, will make it possible to formulate relevant conclusions aimed
at restarting the nature of public relations between the state and society in
order to improve quality of satisfaction of citizens’ interests.
1. Methodology of the study
To solve the tasks set in the scientic article, the basis of its methodology
is a complex of methodological approaches and general scientic and
special scientic methods of scientic knowledge of social phenomena
and processes: theoretical generalization, semantic, comparison, analysis
and synthesis for clarication and improvement of the conceptual and
categorical apparatus, in particular, to clarify the essence of the concepts
«digitalization», «electronic democracy», «electronic government»;
200
Maksym Pendiura, Alona Lukashenko, Oksana Lapka, Valeriia Kryvenko y Denys Tykhomyrov
Digitization of public authorities: Global experience
systemic analysis to reveal the regulatory and legal regulation of digital
processes in public authorities at the national and local level, as well as to
consider the changes that occurred as a result of the activation of digital
transformation, decentralization, pandemics and military actions and the
consequences of their impact on the functioning of the public authority
system in Ukraine; comparative analysis and extrapolation to determine
the advantages and problems of digitization of public authorities in Ukraine
compared to relevant foreign practices; expert evaluations to determine
the current state of development of e-democracy in the world and at the
national level; logical generalization for the development of conclusions
and recommendations regarding the development of mechanisms of
digitalization of public administration bodies in accordance with modern
global trends.
The normative basis and information base of the scientic article are
the legislation of Ukraine on the development of the information society
and e-government, the resolutions and orders of the Cabinet of Ministers
of Ukraine and the decrees of the President of Ukraine on the development
of the information society, the implementation of e-government, the use of
modern information and communication technologies by state authorities,
the legislation of foreign countries in the eld of e-government regulation,
legal acts of local state authorities and local self-government bodies, web
pages and portals that provide access to e-democracy technologies.
2. Analysis of recent research
A signicant number of scientic works are devoted to the fundamental
foundations, theoretical, practical and methodological aspects of the
development of electronic democracy in various aspects of social and
administrative life, which repeatedly emphasized the presence of individual
local and systemic barriers to the introduction and use of digitalization,
suggested ways to solve them on the legislative, managerial, economic and
other levels.
In general, without denying that the active introduction of information
technologies into the system of socio-political relations signicantly
expands the opportunities of citizens regarding their participation in
solving common issues and creates conditions for the formation of a
qualitatively new level of citizen activity, however, the expediency of
a comprehensive study of the issues of further development of state
implementation mechanisms does not lose its relevance and ensuring, at
the national level, world-leading digitization practices in the activities of
public authorities. Among the complex of main problems, the problem of
improving the normative and legal regulation of social relations during the
use of information technologies is extremely important.
201
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 41 Nº 79 (2023): 197-212
The purpose of the article is to analyze the national and international
aspects of digitization in public authorities and assess the achievements of
the leading countries of the world and Ukraine in its implementation and
development.
3. Results and discussion
One of the prerequisites for eective interaction between a democratic
state and civil society is proper regulatory and legal support. In this part of the
study, we will analyze the state of legal regulation of digital transformation
in Ukraine, which reects the state and development of reforming various
spheres of public life and the participation of public administration subjects
in the specied process.
The Sustainable Development Strategy «Ukraine-2020» states that one
of the priority reforms is the reform of «state administration, the result of
which should be the creation of an eective, transparent, open and exible
structure of state administration with the use of the latest information and
communication technologies (e-government) to ensure the development
and implementation of a comprehensive state policy aimed at social
sustainable development and adequate response to internal and external
challenges» (Decree Of The President Of Ukraine No. 5/2015, 2015).
On May 3, 2022, amendments were made to the Law of Ukraine «On
Electronic Communications» regarding the improvement of the eciency
of the organization of the work of providers of electronic communication
networks and/or services under martial law (Law Of Ukraine No. 2240-IX,
2022) in order to improve the eciency of the organization of the work of
providers of electronic communication networks and/or services in martial
law conditions. This Law will ensure the stable functioning of the state’s
electronic communication network in conditions of martial law and will
prevent interference by enemy forces in its functioning.
Also, on July 8, 2022, a Resolution was adopted on the approval of
the tasks of the National Informatization Program for 2022-2024, the
result of which was the approval of the program tasks and ensuring the
implementation of informatization in state authorities, in particular, this is
digital development, development of electronic government, information
society, digital innovations and technologies in state institutions (Resolution
Of The Verkhovna Rada Of Ukraine. No. 2360-IX, 2022).
Among all the variety of adopted legal acts, the following main areas
of digitization of public authorities can be identied, reected in the
documents specied in these documents: functioning and content of web
resources and web pages; electronic services; participation of citizens in
202
Maksym Pendiura, Alona Lukashenko, Oksana Lapka, Valeriia Kryvenko y Denys Tykhomyrov
Digitization of public authorities: Global experience
making management decisions; electronic document ow and electronic
digital signature; protection of information and personal data.
In Ukraine, in general, an appropriate legislative and regulatory
framework has been created in the direction of digitalization of the
activities of public authorities, but it is not without such shortcomings
as: declarativeness, non-systematic nature, incompleteness, vagueness,
insucient mutual agreement of documents and compliance with
international norms.
The problem of the quality of the preparation of normative legal acts
at the state level remains relevant: in some places, the acts are developed
without conducting a thorough analysis of the problem that requires legal
regulation and taking into account the risks of their introduction, public
discussion, conducting high-quality socio-economic and legal expertise,
taking into account the need for their interaction with other acts, etc. These
factors lead to the fact that Ukraine lags behind the leading countries in
the world in terms of digitalization rates. Also, today there is no integral
mechanism of legal enforcement of tasks related to the digitization of
relations between the state and society, legal nihilism of citizens and
businesses, and imperfect practice of law enforcement.
The Government’s long-term priorities are determined by the Program
of Activities of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is a framework
document, the content of which is disclosed in particular through strategies
that represent long-term planning. In our opinion, the prospect of adopting
a basic document that would outline the strategic orientations of the
digitalization of public authorities is becoming extremely important,
and the development of the action plan should take place in the context
of sustainable development goals adapted by Ukraine and aim to achieve
specic goals and indicators.
According to the Plan of the Working Group on Digitization in Ukraine,
it is necessary to: ensure the stable functioning of the digital economy/IT
industry; restoration of destroyed digital infrastructure; implementation of
complex electronic public services, restoration of the network of centers
for the provision of administrative services; protection of state information
resources (Project of the Recovery Plan of Ukraine, 2022).
The main obstacles to the implementation of the mentioned ideas
in life are: complex bureaucratic processes; conservative approaches
to document management; production of electronic communication
equipment; partial destruction as a result of the production of cable
products, which complicates logistics processes; the need for advanced
training and retraining of a signicant number of specialists in the eld has
been mobilized, replacement of qualied specialists; lack of guarantees for
conducting IT activities and the diculty of attracting foreign citizens as
203
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 41 Nº 79 (2023): 197-212
e-residents due to martial law; lack of state regulation of the virtual asset
market; the outow of startups and technological specialists abroad as a
result of hostilities; lack of budgetary funding for cyber security projects;
constant aggression against the country in cyberspace, which requires
a response and limits resources for the implementation of cyber security
projects; risks of physical destruction of infrastructure.
In general, it should be noted that the legislation of Ukraine, which is
burdened by the conditions of war and is directly related to the introduction
and use of digital technologies in the activities of public authorities, despite
its fragmentation and certain chaotic nature, creates legal grounds for the
wide use of IT technologies in the state administration, electronic document
circulation and electronic interaction of state authorities. At the same time,
the regulatory, administrative, organizational, technical, and economic
components of the digitalization process of public authorities need to
be further improved in order to eectively implement internationally
recognized digital tools for the interaction of the state and civil society at
the national, regional, and local levels.
As evidenced by world experience, only a strong political will aimed at
achieving clear goals, enshrined in relevant strategies, programs, laws on
the development and implementation of e-government, with appropriate
amounts of nancial resources, can positively inuence the development of
e-government in Ukraine. In our opinion, in the future, in accordance wi