Framing human capabilities in digital government: a thematic analysis of policies and strategies

In this paper, we explored the ways in which human capabilities were interpreted and framed in digital government policies and strategies. This research can be viewed as a prospective analysis of the extent to which digital government promotes human capabilities. Using the human capabilities approach (HCA) as a theoretical frame and template analysis as technique, we developed the codebook used for thematic coding through an iterative process of deduction and induction. The themes were then used to analyse policy and strategy documents from four countries to determine what, how, and to what extent human capabilities have been integrated into digital government. We found that all national digital government policies and strategies address human capabilities, albeit with variation in emphasis. Despite their relative order, the ubiquity of the themes in national policies and strategies reflects the universality of human capabilities.