Digitalisation drives collaborative forms of governance

Public policy debates have addressed how the public administration should work together with private and civil society actors as bureaucracy goes digital. Advocates of the networked governance paradigm see digital technologies as a driver and enabler of collaborative forms of governance within networks of state and non-state actors. But is digitalisation giving non-state actors more of a voice in bureaucratic processes?

Not according to research conducted by Hertie School Professor of Public and Financial Management Gerhard Hammerschmid, Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy Kai Wegrich, and researchers Dr Enora Palaric and Maike Rackwitz. In a comparative analysis of eight European countries, they show that information and communication technologies tend to reinforce traditional features of administration and the recentralisation of power. The article, “A shift in paradigm? Collaborative public administration in the context of national digitalization strategies”, appeared recently in the journal Governance.
 

Cross-sphere collaboration, but steering role lies mainly with administration

With the digitalisation of public management, some scholars have claimed that there has been a shift toward the increased role of networks and partnerships in a collaborative form of governance. To see whether cooperation among public institutions, civil society and private actors has become more balanced, the authors compared the most recent digitalisation strategies in Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom with the most relevant strategy from ten years before.

The results of their analysis show that even the latest digitalisation strategies pay relatively little attention to goals associated with networked governance. While the country comparison did reveal that non-state actors are increasingly involved in drafting and implementing digitalisation strategies, these actors do not receive a steering role. According to the networked governance paradigm, improving transparency and participation are overarching goals, yet current digitalisation strategies focus more on increasing cost efficiency, citizens’ orientation and protection than on empowerment.

“Across the eight countries, we find that digitalization strategies envision the future of the state predominantly as a service provider and protector of citizens rather than a partner within a network of state and non-state actors,” they write. “Digitalization reforms are driven from the top, with limited involvement of non-state actors.” The authors conclude that rather than a paradigm shift, digitalisation has brought changes to the way the public administration works while leaving existing hierarchies and structures intact.

These findings challenge the claim that networked governance is becoming the dominant model in the digitalisation of the public sector. “The networked governance paradigm describes how public administration should be organised, not what it looks like now,” says first author Hammerschmid. “Given the increasing digitalisation of administrative processes, we need to rethink what bureaucracy should look like in the digital era.”

Read the full report in Governance.

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