TECHNOLOGY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW WITH EVIDENCE-BASED IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES FOR REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS
TL;DR
This integrative review examines digital transformation in public administration with particular attention to regional and subnational governments in emerging economies and concludes that subnational digital transformation should be governed as long-term institutional reform rather than as a sequence of isolated technology projects.
Abstract
This integrative review examines digital transformation in public administration with particular attention to regional and subnational governments in emerging economies. The review combines a primary corpus of 268 records identified through a structured search and screening process with three supplementary searches conducted to address subnational governance, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), and cybersecurity and privacy standards. The synthesis extends the Technology-Organization-Environment framework by incorporating multilevel governance and subnational state capacity, thereby explaining why similar technologies produce different outcomes across jurisdictions. The evidence indicates that digital transformation succeeds when technological investment is preceded and sustained by legal authority, interoperable architecture, data governance, institutional coordination, workforce capability, cybersecurity, and stable financing. Comparative analysis of Estonia, Singapore, Uruguay, the United Kingdom’s Universal Credit program, and Healthcare.gov demonstrates that durable governance and incremental delivery matter more than technological novelty. For Brazilian subnational governments, the Digital Government Law, the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), federal shared-service infrastructure, and national oversight arrangements provide an enabling baseline, but implementation remains conditioned by uneven state capacity and federative coordination. The article proposes a phased implementation framework and updates the cybersecurity and privacy discussion to reflect ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 27018:2025, ISO/IEC 27701:2025, ISO/IEC 27031:2025, NIST CSF 2.0, and the ANPD regulations on incident reporting and international data transfers. It also develops a risk-based governance approach for GenAI, digital twins, and verifiable credentials. The central conclusion is that subnational digital transformation should be governed as long-term institutional reform rather than as a sequence of isolated technology projects.