What is it about?
The chapter argues that the Fourth Industrial Revolution provides a powerful impetus for change in a number of areas of public management and governance. It also outlines the origins and objectives of the Visegrád Group as well as the most recent socio-economic developments in these countries.
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Why is it important?
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) taking place today affects every aspect of state, economy and society as the boundaries between the public, private, and non-profit sectors are becoming increasingly blurred. The search for innovative ways to increase efficiency by public authorities leads to the growth of a mixed economy involving public, private, and non-profit providers of public services, as well as increased participation of private and non-profit actors in addressing problems traditionally considered to be the domain of public policy. The Fourth Industrial Revolution presents enormous challenges that all the countries worldwide are trying to meet to the best of their abilities and resources. This is true for the core countries, i.e. the most developed, prosperous, and industrialised ones, as well as the middle- and low-income ones, also known as semi-periphery and periphery countries, which continue to rely on economic assistance. The challenges posed by 4IR will also be felt faced by the Visegrád Group, comprising the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, all of which are located in Central and Eastern Europe and have comparable political and economic aspirations. The importance of the Visegrád economies in Europe is increasing. Taken together, they represent the sixth economic powerhouse and the third largest consumer market in Europe. Between 1991 and 2019, their combined GDP at current prices increased by 155 per cent to €996 billion in 2019. In 2019, GDP per capita in the V4 countries accounted for nearly 72 per cent of the so-called old EU countries.
Perspectives
Our reflections focus on the changes that are taking place in the V4 coun¬tries in the areas of public management and governance that are considered crucial from the perspective of globalisation and technological change, such as responding to social and economic challenges, preventing the peripherali¬sation of their economies, reconfiguring the state’s relations with its stakehold¬ers, developing public e-services, managing data and information flows, open data policies and combating the production of false narratives and disinfor¬mation. The concept of globotics, which is understood as the concurrent pro¬cesses of globalisation and robotisation, identified with technological change in the broadest sense, provides the theoretical framework for the analysis of the changes occurring in the studied areas.
Marcin Zawicki
Krakow University of Economics
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Visegrád Group at the Threshold of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, December 2024, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004711952_002.
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