MA thesis: The Political Economy of Free/Open Source Software

Masters of Arts in International Relations University of Sussex: Graduate Thesis

September 2005

The Political Economy of Governmental Adoptions of Free/Open Source Software: Evolving Global Property Relations

For a full pdf copy of this paper, contact alexgordy@gmail.com
Alternatively, visit http://cooptation.blogspot.com/ for an online version

Abstract

This study approaches the issue of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) from a historical materialist perspective, as it relates the historical dynamics of the software industry to the recent trend of government adoptions of FOSS.

Starting with a brief analysis of Government’s role in fostering a software industry and the backlash this provoked in the form of ‘free software’, the study proceeds to a theoretical discussion of how differing conceptions of property, as represented by proprietary software and ‘free software’, have been integrated into the mechanisms of profit accumulation through the depoliticised ‘open source’ alternative.

Within this framework, insight will be provided into the role of the state regarding this profit accumulation. Our third and final section will focus on more contemporary issues of governmental adoption of FOSS, relating this discussion to the dynamics of the ‘Free Software’ (FS) and ‘Open Source’ (OS) movements, which comprise FOSS.

This analysis of the software industry is enlightening insofar as it reflects the wider relationship of Government to high-technology sectors of the economy, which is viewed increasingly as a merely technical, rather than political, issue.