Session 7: Rebooting the State
This article was written by Chloe Hallinan and Audrey Fontaine.
Introduction
We will begin with a topical discussion of the United States presidential election. The record election turnout was noteworthy particularly in the context of this class where we have studied declining participation rates as well as rising distrust in democracy. Despite the impressive turnout, the election results were also polarized, which poses a threat to democracy and underscores the need for the integration of a more deliberative process. As we have discussed in class, a deliberative process improves democratic outcomes by allowing citizens to debate and think more deeply about politics. Beyond the electoral process, many poor Americans feel left behind by globalization and forgotten by their government, which often fails to provide them with essential services including healthcare, which has significantly contributed to the disturbing fall in life expectancy in the United States in juxtaposition to the steady life expectancy increase seen in other OECD countries. The government’s failure to address these citizens’ needs in a literal life and death scenario highlights the need to rethink how the government functions, provides services, and addresses citizens’ needs. Digital technology has the potential to fundamentally change and improve government services, but the technology is merely a tool. Government, civil servants, and citizens themselves must learn to leverage these resources to reboot the state.
Summary
In recent years, digital technologies have been used primarily as e-government tools to improve communication and increase access to and information about public services. However, digital can do much more if it is integrated as a culture-shift strategy in governments’ modernization strategies.
In the course we had the opportunity to discuss with Mathilde Bras about Etalab, a French Government Agency, part of the strategy for digital transformation that started in 2011 with the implementation of an open data portal, and then shifted its work to proposing solutions on how this open data strategy can create public value.
In light of this example, we will list the steps to Reboot the State, from the use of digital technologies to createnew partnerships, connect various actors and create public value.
- First, governments can use digital technologies (internet, mobile technologies & devices, data analytics) to improve the working of the public sector, the interactions with stakeholders, and to build a government that is more transparent, responsive and accountable. In addition, civic technology gives government and civil servants the opportunity to be more proactive, anticipate people’s needs and respond to them rapidly, so that users do not have to engage with the cumbersome process of data and service delivery.
- Digital can also enhance the quality and the efficiency of public service by transforming procedures. In fact, digital changes the way public servants interact with citizens, how they communicate, how they work on a daily basis; and this has proven useful to change the mindset. As an example, Etalab has set up a program called “public interest entrepreneurs”, which aims at introducing a digitally skilled professional into public administration to work on a specific program in partnership with civil servants. By bringing an external point of view at the table, the experience is very efficient in changing operations and working methods, and improving the focus on users’ expectations and needs. In addition, it highlighted that human resources, and especially public servants, are central in rebooting the state.
- Governments need to invest and attract the required human resources to manage the digital transformation of the public sector. This implies attracting and maintaining professionals as well as developing the skills of those already in the public sector workforce. To engage in cultural change, one has to convince by doing, transmitting, teaching new methods and approaches first, then the transformation will follow. Thus, a change in management and career within public service, and enhancement of digital mindset among all public officials is crucial to foster a cultural change.
A proactive use of digital can also create new partnerships, involve cross-sectoral voices and connect different actors (in and outside of the government) in ways that allow public sector organizations to inform, consult, engage, partner, collaborate, and co-create new approaches or solutions to problems. Governments should act as a platform, encouraging multi-level and multi-actor governance.
By revisiting the participation of citizens in public governance and public service, towards a more cooperative and collaborative experience of government, new and emergent digital technologies could participate in increasing public trust towards institutions.
In conclusion, technology is just a means to an end. It should be used as strategic drivers to make governments agile and resilient, and to create open, innovative, participatory and trustworthy public sectors.
Definitions
- e-government: widely used in early 90s to describe world wide web along with government creation of websites and other digital interfaces for communication between government and citizens without fundamentally changing how governments function.
- digital government: use digital technologies (such as data, blockchain, and AI)o support a shift in culture within government using technology as a means to an end to improve provision of services and increase efficiency keeping in mind the ultimate goal of transforming the relationship between citizens and government.
- public sector innovation: experimenting with new ideas to use emerging technologies like blockchain as well as new ways of working like decentralization and task forces while using technology to make governments more agile and resilient.
- digital by design: when government constructs a service with digital in mind from the start of the design process.
- open by default: when the process of developing a service is done transparently from start to finish and throughout.
Readings
According to Tim O’Reilly, the secret to the success of digital technology giants including Google, Amazon, Ebay, Craigslist, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Twitter, is each company’s ability to leverage the power of its users to add value. While digital technology has enabled astronomical economic growth in the private sector, it can also benefit politicians by not only helping them campaign but by allowing them to do their jobs in a more efficient and inclusive manner. O’Reilly refers to this initiative as government 2.0. Instead of following what Donald Kettl coined “vending machine government” where government is limited transactional exchange of taxes and services offered by a limited list of vendors, a bazaar allows the community to exchange themselves. The equivalent of a thriving bazaar is a successful platform but how can government 2.0 create a platform that enables both citizens and civil servants to contribute?
France Connect as a case study
FranceConnect represents two government initiatives that move toward fulfilling the government 2.0 initiative. FranceConnect emulates the digital services citizens use on a daily basis like Facebook by making it easier to connect online to public services. FranceConnect allows citizens to use their tax identification on administrative websites. However, unlike the technology giants, the French state does not share user information for a profit. The data remains in the hands of the citizens. FranceConnect also aligns with the OECD recommendations on Digital Government Strategies. FranceConnect strengthens the connection between digital government and public governance by facilitating access of services via digital technology. It also extrapolated from the existing asset of the tax identification system to build out the digital technology that enables FranceConnect.
Conclusion
Facing increasing distrust, and failing to address citizens’ needs, governments around the world have to think about ways to change how they operate and reboot its democratic processes. Developing citizens’ participation in public decision-making seems to be one way to go.
As a first step of change, the public sector has to be data-driven, using data as strategic assets and following rules and ethical principles enhancing their trustworthy and safe reuse. Then, the government should be open by default, making government data and policy-making processes available for the public to engage, whenever the balance between national and interest allows it. Third, governments should also be proactive in meeting citizen’s needs by using digital technologies, investing in human resources, and changing its operations and working methods. Digital should not only be a technical topic, but a mandatory transformative element to be embedded throughout policy processes, allowing the creation of new partnerships within and outside of the public service. Thus, governments can become platforms that meet the needs of their users, providing clear and transparent sources of guidelines, tools, data and software, and delivering user-driven, seamless, integrated, proactive and cross-sectoral service.
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