De afgelopen jaren is er een groeiende trend van digitalisering van de publieke dienstverlening van overheden te zien. Met digitalisering wordt bedoeld dat overheidsinstellingen steeds meer gebruik...Show moreDe afgelopen jaren is er een groeiende trend van digitalisering van de publieke dienstverlening van overheden te zien. Met digitalisering wordt bedoeld dat overheidsinstellingen steeds meer gebruik maken van digitale technologieën om hun diensten en processen te vervangen of te verbeteren, die voorheen bijvoorbeeld door mensen werden uitgevoerd. Deze ontwikkeling is in Nederland voornamelijk gericht op het verbeteren van de kwaliteit en toegankelijkheid van de publieke dienstverlening, en het verminderen van de administratieve rompslomp. Digitalisering van publieke dienstverlening komt echter niet zonder slag of stoot. Een voorbeeld in Nederland is de Omgevingswet: in oktober 2022 gaf minister van Volkshuisvesting en Ruimtelijke Ordening Hugo de Jonge aan dat hij 1 januari 2023 als datum voor de inwerkingtreding van de Omgevingswet niet haalbaar achtte en stelde als nieuwe datum 1 juli 2023 voor. De grotere gemeenten zoals Amsterdam en Rotterdam vinden echter dat er meer tijd benodigd is. Ze verwijzen daarbij naar het advies van de Adviescommissie ICT, waarin wordt gesteld dat zes maanden uitstel onvoldoende is om het onderliggende digitale stelsel op orde te krijgen. Inwerkingtreding op 1 januari 2024 is volgens die gemeenten ‘realistischer’ (2022). Een ander voorbeeld is een mislukte proef met afvalverzameling in de gemeente Amsterdam. Het digitaliseren van het proces bleek onsuccesvol omdat de resultaten niet goed werden gemonitord, het inzamelen niet efficiënter bleek en de inwoners ontevreden waren over het gebruik van de nieuwe werkwijze. Duoraadslid Rogier Havelaar (CDA) constateerde dat de gemeente zich in het project heeft vergist: ‘Voor dit soort logistiek heb je steengoede data nodig. De gemeente is qua ict helemaal niet op dat niveau. Dan kom je in de problemen,’ (Leeuw, 2022). Problemen in digitalisering bij de overheid ontstaan in reeds genoemde voorbeelden door te weinig kennis en kunde binnen de organisatie; hieronder wordt verstaan het bestuur (politici) en ambtenaren. Men kan constateren dat Nederlandse besturen doordrongen zijn van het feit dat ze bij moeten benen met de digitale ontwikkelingen in de wereld, maar de wijze waarop dit gebeurt, is nog onvoldoende onderzocht. Het doel - toegankelijke, digitale publieke dienstverlening aanbieden aan alle inwoners - wordt zo voorbij geschoten. In de literatuur over digitalisering van publieke dienstverlening wordt veel geschreven over welke factoren succesvol of desastreus kunnen zijn voor het implementatieproces bij burgers, maar men stuit op een kennisgat wanneer specifiek wordt gekeken naar succesfactoren op lokaal, Nederlands niveau. Deze literature gap indiceert dat er meer aandacht besteed moet worden aan onderzoek naar deze factoren, vanuit het perspectief van de decentrale overheid. In de Zeeuwse gemeente Goes wordt op dit moment nagedacht over hoe digitale publieke dienstverlening succesvol kan worden ingebed in het beleid. De Informatievoorzieningenvisie is de eerste stap hierin (hierna: I-visie). In deze visie wordt beschreven hoe de digitale transitie wordt ingezet om tot inclusieve digitale publieke dienstverlening te komen. Dit houdt in dat men werkt aan het verbeteren van het klantcontact met iedere inwoner in de gemeente Goes middels digitale beleidsinstrumenten. Er is in de gemeente Goes behoefte aan meer kennis over de wijze waarop deze doelstelling kan worden behaald, wat aansluit op het geconstateerde kennisgat over succesfactoren voor inclusieve digitale publieke dienstverlening. In dit essay worden de verschillende aspecten van het behalen van zo veel als mogelijke inclusiviteit van digitale publieke dienstverlening in de gemeente Goes behandeld.Show less
This thesis explores the relationship between bureaucratic accountability and their disposition toward utilizing algorithms in their decision-making processes. Drawing upon the literature on...Show moreThis thesis explores the relationship between bureaucratic accountability and their disposition toward utilizing algorithms in their decision-making processes. Drawing upon the literature on government accountability and aversion to algorithmic decision-making, it hypothesizes that the more public officials are aware of the chains of accountability they are tied to, the less favorable they will be to utilizing algorithms. The hypothesis is tested through a case study of the Chilean Institute of Social Services, which employs multiple algorithms to automate eligibility decisions for pension and other social benefit applications. To trace the organization’s bureaucratic accountability chain, data collection is based on semi-structured interviews of public officials from different hierarchical levels. The results confirm several theoretical expectations on reduced discretion, muddled authority over the algorithm and algorithmic opacity, leading to blame avoidance within the organization. However, the results also disprove the hypothesized negative relationship, revealing that officials with high awareness and perceptions of individual accountability instead favor using algorithms to automate decisions. Further analysis of the dependent variable reveals that a favorable disposition toward algorithm use is overwhelmingly tied to the perception of trust. The individual descriptions of bureaucrats convey clues for an alternative explanation of the outcome, suggesting that stringent evaluation and audit practices can help circumvent algorithm aversion resulting from opaque algorithms or reduced discretion. Such a potential explanation implies that bureaucratic accountability chains could serve as a substitute source of trust, allowing public servants to hold the algorithm to account by proxy. The qualitative accounts in this thesis offer insights into how bureaucrats feel personally accountable for the algorithms they use, expanding the literature of public officials’ reliance on algorithmic decision-making.Show less
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was assumed that European cooperation, both individually and collectively, would produce better results than autonomous national self-interest. Especially the...Show moreDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, it was assumed that European cooperation, both individually and collectively, would produce better results than autonomous national self-interest. Especially the demand for increased cross-national cooperation to accelerate data exchange for multilateral COVID-19 research to inform public health policy-making was highly critical. However, sharing health data for secondary purposes such as research is difficult, as technical, political, and ethical issues were identified before the COVID-19 pandemic. This thesis focused on data management issues and barriers such as a lack of metadata standards and data interoperability. Facilitating cross-border secondary use of health data to inform public health decisions has been on the EU's agenda for some time, leading to the creation of the Joint Action Towards the European Health Data Space and the European Commission’s recommendation on a European electronic health record exchange standard, among other things. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an excellent case study for determining whether these guidelines were adequate for guiding efficient data sharing in collaborative research. For instance, the EU made a significant investment in cooperative COVID-19 research projects with the goal of providing data to support public health policies. In this thesis, ReCoDID, ORCHESTRA, unCoVer, and SYNCHROS—four projects financed by the EU Horizon2020 program—are discussed in detail. The projects shed light on the challenges of sharing patient-level data from observational cohorts, particularly with regard to data management issues such as data interoperability. It was discovered that EU guidelines did enable the formation of research projects and that these projects were even aimed at improving data harmonisation and exchange in COVID-19 research. However, because there is still no EU-standardised agreement on the selection of data interoperability standards, this has become a difficult task. Specifically, none of the four projects examined was able to locate interoperability standards at the legal, policy, care process, information, application, or infrastructure levels.Show less
State-sponsored cyberattacks are increasing. Although most attacks have a motivation like espionage, theft, and sabotage, there are also attacks motived to disrupt or interfere with a country to...Show moreState-sponsored cyberattacks are increasing. Although most attacks have a motivation like espionage, theft, and sabotage, there are also attacks motived to disrupt or interfere with a country to negatively affect public support for the incumbent government. Even though there are plenty of examples of cyberattacks with these motivations, the actual effect of public support towards the government has not been analyzed yet. According to the rally-around-the- flag theory, sudden, international and short events such as state-sponsored cyberattack should increase public support for government instead of decrease, as the aim of the attack. In this paper, a regression discontinuity analysis is conducted on the 2007 Estonian cyberattacks. Thereby, the satisfaction levels with the government and democracy are measured before and during the attack. The effect of cyberattacks on both the satisfaction with the government as well as democracy are non-significant. In other words, state-sponsored cyberattacks do not affect the population’s support for government. This is remarkable because it directly contradicts the purpose of the attack. It raises the follow-up question to what extent these types of attacks are effective.Show less
Governments are increasingly recurring to Smart Mobility policy solutions to address mobility issues in the cities and around them. These Smart Mobility initiatives rely on Information and...Show moreGovernments are increasingly recurring to Smart Mobility policy solutions to address mobility issues in the cities and around them. These Smart Mobility initiatives rely on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as sensors and mobile phones, to collect data. Without it, they cannot perform their tasks. However, much of that collected data is considered personal under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This thesis will look at the Smart Mobility policy formulation in the Netherlands and analyse how the GDPR has impacted it.Show less
Since 2004, France tries to implement different versions of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The implementation faced different issues which delayed the project. A part of this issue lies on the...Show moreSince 2004, France tries to implement different versions of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The implementation faced different issues which delayed the project. A part of this issue lies on the resistance of the physicians to accept the EHRs. The theories of technology acceptance can bring insight into the perspective of the physicians. This paper is a qualitative research in which semi-structured interviews were conducted among physicians in different cities and regions of France. The researcher found out that physicians are reticent to accept the EHRs due to their impracticability and the lack of systemic support. Furthermore, the physicians suffered from the pandemic and do not want to carry the workload related to the implementation of the EHRs.Show less
The latest academic literature on open government data (OGD), open government data initiatives (OGDI) and related policies reveals a gap in the knowledge on how such initiatives and policies may...Show moreThe latest academic literature on open government data (OGD), open government data initiatives (OGDI) and related policies reveals a gap in the knowledge on how such initiatives and policies may stimulate OGD (re)use and value creation. By examining the Danish ‘Basic Data Programme’ (BDP) initiative, this thesis analyses whether and how this policy framework enables value creation among public and private stakeholders. The thesis found that the BDP enables OGD (re)use among various public and private stakeholders and leads to different types of value creation. Moreover, the analysis found interrelationships between several factors and objectives present in the BDP and its data distribution framework and the uptake of OGD by relevant stakeholders. The most significant factors were accessibility to and affordability of OGD and data quality in terms of accuracy and reliability.Show less
Climate change has become the main challenge of the 21st century in particular due to pollutant emissions. Among other factors, the increase of pollutants emissions is related to the soaring number...Show moreClimate change has become the main challenge of the 21st century in particular due to pollutant emissions. Among other factors, the increase of pollutants emissions is related to the soaring number of vehicles powered through fossil fuel combustion. Mainly concentrated in cities, impoverished air quality has been associated with major health issues. In this context, electric mobility has been identified among other measures as an appropriate initiative to adopt in order to reduce pollutant emissions. However, cities are the ones representing both the production sites of air pollution and the places where it is crucial to take action in order to fight poor air quality. Since cities vary in size and characteristics, it remains difficult to find the most adequate solution to comply with European supranational directives set out by the European Commission. Joining transnational municipal networks is supposed to help cities exchange information and practices with other cities experiencing similar challenges to identify the most suitable measures to implement locally. Most of the literature agrees on the promising benefits of joining such networks, however little is known about effective policy implementation. In addition, most of the research focused on large networks and big cities of Northern and Central Europe; whereas Southern European small and medium-sized cities have been neglected so far. This research aims at investigating electric mobility policy implementation in four cities located in Southern Europe that represent both small and medium sized cities, namely Alicante (Spain), Bilbao (Spain), Perugia (Italy) and Reggio Emilia (Italy). The study focuses on the difference of policy implementation regarding the participation of the city in the POLIS network or not. The POLIS network is a European specialized city-network in the field of innovative mobility. Bilbao and Perugia are POLIS’ members, whereas Alicante and Reggio Emilia are not. At first, the study suggests that the participation in the city network POLIS does not make the difference in electric mobility implementation. Indeed all four cities have at least one measure in place regardless of their participation or non-participation in the network. However, major differences have been observed, in particular among the cities that do not participate in the network. While Alicante did not extensively implement electric mobility, Reggio Emilia was very dynamic on the matter. On the other hand, member cities have common electric mobility policies in place. However, alternative factors may explain the homogeneity in electric mobility implementation in European small and medium sized city. Further studies should investigate the role of smaller city networks that might be more suitable to guide sustainable policy implementation in small and medium-sized cities.Show less
The goal of this study is to discover whether the concepts perceived diversity climate, the perception of inclusion and diversity recruitment have a positive effect on the retention rates of...Show moreThe goal of this study is to discover whether the concepts perceived diversity climate, the perception of inclusion and diversity recruitment have a positive effect on the retention rates of minority trainees at ProRail. This research is a single-case analysis with a qualitative approach. Thirteen in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted, eight with minority trainees and five with recruiters. The results demonstrate that all of the before-mentioned concepts have a positive effect on the retention rates of minority trainees. However, the ideology of meritocracy and the opposition towards bureaucracy threaten the positive influence that diversity recruitment has on retention rates of minorities. These outcomes are both of scientific and societal relevance. Furthermore, the study includes recommendations for future research and policy recommendations for ProRail.Show less
EU agencies and comparable institutional advisory bodies have proliferated and gained increasing prominence within the politics of the European Union in recent decades, leading scholars to assert...Show moreEU agencies and comparable institutional advisory bodies have proliferated and gained increasing prominence within the politics of the European Union in recent decades, leading scholars to assert that these bodies influence the decision-making procedures in the EU through their information provision. This thesis aims to uncover whether and how the EU agencies, Europol, Frontex, eu-LISA and the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), as well as the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) exerted influence on the policymaking process on establishing a framework for interoperability between the EU’s large-scale information systems. Its theoretical foundation is derived from interest group influence research and empirically it synthesises evidence from qualitative document analysis and elite interviews conducted with officials from Europol, eu-LISA, and the EDPS.Show less
