Electronic Service Delivery in Public Administration: Some Trends and Issues

Abstract

IntroductionContemporary Dutch public administration increasingly uses new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support its service delivery. As in many other European countries, Dutch municipalities experiment with one-stop shops. National government has also initiated new experiments (see, for an international comparison, Lips and Frissen, 1997). For instance, the Student Loans Agency tries to optimize its accessibility by means of ICTs. Students are able to use the traditional paper forms to communicate with the agency, but they can also use their smartcards or the Internet.In this article we analyse the use of ICTs for public service delivery. We also explore the democratic implications of electronic service delivery. Although the quality of public services can be improved with ICTs, its use may also cause a drift away from the traditional constitutional democratic relationships between the state and its citizens. This development may threaten some fundamental legal and democratic guarantees, which are rarely taken into account by the leading political coalitions. Political and administrative backgrounds for increased attention on service delivery in the NetherlandsThe attention on public service delivery is related to some general trends in Dutch public administration. Although it was partly inspired by the experiences in the United States and the United Kingdom, some of the political and administrative background to this development may be specific to the Netherlands. Two alleged 'crises' mainly caused the increased attention on public service delivery: (1) the 'crisis' in the welfare state which developed after the Second World War and (2) the 'crisis' in the constitutional democratic relationship between citizens and politicians.The gradual expansion of state intervention after the Second World War led to a welfare state in which citizens were nurtured from 'the cradle to the grave'. During the 1980s public administration increasingly met financial limits. Slowly

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