Electronic Governance: Implications for Citizens, Politicians and Public Servants

Introduction The subject of this article is related to two of the most important developments in modern public administrations. The first development is that the traditional rather simple ‘vertical’ command-and-control relationships between governments and (actors in) societies are being replaced by more complicated ‘horizontal’ network relationships between public, semi-public and private agents. In these networks sociopolitical steering results not from one-sided interventions by government, but from permanent bargaining. This development is not only a consequence of a growing tendency for governments to be dependent on powerful actors in society, but — among others — also as a result of New Public Management (npm) initiatives. These npm initiatives lead to, among others, interdependencies between governmental authorities and autonomized, outsourced and privatized activities in the public sphere. The second development is the introduction of information and communication technology applications (icts), which through their control, surveillance, communication and knowledge management potential are revolutionizing the internal workings and external relationships of public administrations. Assembling, analysing, storing and distributing information about societal developments and individual circumstances belong to the core business of governments and public administrations. Because the technologies around this core business are fundamentally changing, as is the case with icts, the core business itself is also deeply affected. We will see different examples — taken mainly from Dutch experience — of such fundamental changes in this article. The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of the concurrence of both these developments on the position of (1) politicians in their relationships with public servants; (2) with politicians vis-à-vis citizens; and (3) of public servants and citizens. Therefore, an overview will be given of the categories of icts which are generally used in politics and public administration by politicians, public servants and citizens in the different phases of policy-making and policy