From Civic Tech to DOGE: The Role of Tech Movements in the American Administrative State

Paper by Donald Moynihan: “The second Trump administration saw the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a group of outsider technologists given extraordinary power to pursue a massive downsizing of the federal government. They also displaced an alternative approach: the civic tech movement. Civic tech for government applies technology, data, and human-centered design to improve policy implementation, fueled by prosocial motivation, promising to increase state capacity in a way that centers attention on public service clients. This article explains the origins of civic tech for government in the US setting, its core values, and evolution. The movement grew in prominence and influence from 2014 to 2024, making steady inroads into government but never gaining sufficient power to implement profound change. The conflicting origins, philosophy, and power between civic tech and DOGE offer contrasting visions for how tech can reshape the American administrative state…(More)”.