INDICELE DIGITAL HORSE: UN INSTRUMENT COMPOZIT PENTRU EVALUAREA MATURITĂŢII DIGITALE ÎN ADMINISTRAŢIA PUBLICĂ LOCALĂ
THE DIGITAL HORSE INDEX: A COMPOSITE INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING DIGITAL MATURITY IN LOCAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Summary/Abstract: This article proposes the Digital Horse Index – a composite instrument for measuring the digital maturity of local public administration, built on four interdependent dimensions: technical capacity, institutional decision-making, human adoption and perceived impact. Like horsepower in mechanics, the Digital Horse Index measures institutional digital power through the complementary relationship between technology and the human factor – different yet inseparable, emblematic for this new millennium. The index is empirically applied to the case of Iaşi City Hall through a mixed methodological design combining technical audit, documentary analysis, and participatory observation by the author as practitioner-researcher. Results reveal an aggregate score of 65 of 100 and a significant imbalance profile – high technical capacity and institutional decision-making against moderate perceived impact – confirming that the priority intervention vector for digital maturity is human and relational, not technical. The main contribution is twofold: theoretically, it poses a reversal of the dominant causality in public sector digitalization literature; empirically, it offers the first measurement instrument that explicitly integrates the human dimension applied to the Romanian public administration.

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