Geautomatiseerde overheidssystemen zijn niet geschikt voor iedere burger, waardoor kwetsbare burgers niet op toegankelijke en effectieve wijze de overheid digitaal kunnen bereiken. Hierdoor...Show moreGeautomatiseerde overheidssystemen zijn niet geschikt voor iedere burger, waardoor kwetsbare burgers niet op toegankelijke en effectieve wijze de overheid digitaal kunnen bereiken. Hierdoor vergroten hoge administratieve lasten juist de ongelijkheid in de overheidsprocessen en diensten. De overheid startte recentelijk met het landelijke initiatief ‘Informatiepunten Digitale Overheid’ waar digitale hulp wordt verleend aan burgers voor overheidszaken. Om het probleem van administratieve lasten tijdens de digitale dienstverlening in kaart te brengen, zijn de ervaringen van deze doelgroep verzameld. De centrale vraag die gesteld werd, is: hoe ervaren burgers, die gebruik maken van Informatiepunten Digitale Overheid, administratieve lasten in het gebruik van digitale overheidsdiensten? Op basis van drie categorieën lasten: leer-, nalevings- en psychologische kosten, is in kaart gebracht hoe administratieve lasten bij deze doelgroep ontstaan en ervaren. Om representatieve en variërende ervaringen te verkrijgen, zijn medewerkers van lokale informatiepunten geïnterviewd. Door de gecompliceerde procedures van de digitale dienstverlening, in combinatie met de benodigde stappen, worden frustraties en stress aangewakkerd. Er is sprake van een overloop-effect waarin leer- en nalevingskosten ook leiden tot psychologische kosten. Ook blijkt het hebben van een hogere leeftijd en een laag opleidingsniveau invloed te hebben op het uitvoerend functioneren van burgers. Deze levensfactoren brengen een lager cognitief vermogen teweeg en zorgen ervoor dat de procedurele complexiteit wordt verhoogd, resulterend in administratieve lasten (Christensen et al., 2020). De informatieverzameling en het deelnemen van overheidsprogramma’s wordt hierdoor bemoeilijkt (Chetty & Saez, 2013). Kwetsbare burgers ervaren wel degelijk administratieve lasten bij het gebruik van de publieke digitale dienstverlening, wat de toegankelijkheid en effectiviteit verhinderd.Show less
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
The perception of what constitutes algorithmic transparency in the context of predictive policing between citizens and the police in the Netherlands remains to be examined. Most scholars argue that...Show moreThe perception of what constitutes algorithmic transparency in the context of predictive policing between citizens and the police in the Netherlands remains to be examined. Most scholars argue that algorithmic transparency is crucial for combating biases, violation of (data) ethics, legitimacy, and ensuring trust. However, scholars have acknowledged that the perception of what constitutes algorithmic transparency differs per context. Therefore, this thesis aims to research to what extent do the perceptions of algorithmic transparency in the context of predictive policing in the Netherlands align among police and citizens? To scrutinize this research, 9 semi-structured interviews were conducted with police officials to grasp their perceptions. Moreover, the results of the interviews were used as the baseline for the survey conducted with 125 respondents attaining the perception of the citizens in the Netherlands. The results indicated a mismatch between what constitutes algorithmic transparency. The mismatch is not solely between the police and the citizen, but the perception also differs within the police and between the citizens. Thus, this thesis concludes a mismatch between the perception of algorithmic transparency in the context of predictive policing between citizens and the police because solely having one perception is not feasible, and all other perceptions are equally valid. The limitations for this research were primary the small sample size of the interviewee and respondents. Most importantly, this thesis provides an essential practical recommendation for the police on how to lessen the citizens' concerns and, for further research, how to conduct the study on a broader scale.Show less
