This research examines the link between transparency and accountability, by adopting a Single Case-Study design. It studies how the Rijks ICT-dashboard, a transparency-platform listing all Dutch...Show moreThis research examines the link between transparency and accountability, by adopting a Single Case-Study design. It studies how the Rijks ICT-dashboard, a transparency-platform listing all Dutch governmental IT-projects that cost over 5 million Euros, affects and is affected by, the relationships that together make political accountability. Political, civil service and oversight interviews as a main source have been supplemented by examining parliamentary records. We conclude that the Rijks ICT-dashboard generally does not succeed in leading to more accountability. Members of Parliament lack the time and knowledge to structurally and actively monitor IT-based policy execution through using the Dashboard, rather depending on external ‘fire-alarms’ for their information, and as such tend to focus on failing IT-projects. When using the Dashboard’s data, MPs tend to question its validity and trustworthiness instead of using it to ask substantive questions. Civil servants fear failure-related consequences instigated by this incident-driven political debate, and tend to use a wide array of strategies to ‘dodge’ reporting on the Dashboard. This leads to a further distrust amongst both parties, and to MPs demanding more transparency out of principle, with little understanding of its practical and structural use. It can be expected that this leads to further dodging. As such, the Dashboard is a product of negative characteristics of the relationship of political accountability, and in turn further reinforces these characteristics. To mitigate this negative cycle, we advise a higher update-frequency, and a major shift in emphasis from quantitative to qualitative transparency on the Dashboard, focusing on linking IT-projects to the political debates, actively showing projects’ successes and societal value, and aiming to keep the barriers to use the information as low as possible.Show less
The literature of historical institutionalism emphasizes the path dependent character of the policy making process in which critical junctures can alter prevailing policy monopolies and put new...Show moreThe literature of historical institutionalism emphasizes the path dependent character of the policy making process in which critical junctures can alter prevailing policy monopolies and put new path dependent institutions in place, according to scholars in the field of Public Administration. However, ideational change and development of prevailing ideas in an institution could also be part of a non-punctuated institutional dynamic, because change in dominant ideas could happen overtime. In other words, institutions themselves also allow an endogenous dynamic of change. So, instead of focussing on the specific role of critical junctures on the decision-making process as scholars in the field of public administration tend to do, it is crucial to discuss the institutional environment that could be influenced by the critical juncture. This study will highlight the prevailing ideas in the EU’s institutions on the usage of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to protect public health in the EU before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, by establishing a Union-wide framework of collecting and analysing health data. The EU advocated for the need to use such technologies in the formulated EU4Healthplan that acted as a response to COVID-19. However, this programme could also elaborate on the results and ideas of such a Union-wide health and data framework relying on the EU’s Health Programme 2014 – 2020. The latter would indicate a path of slow change in ideas within the policy cycle for EU policymakers. Therefore, this study will research the following question: ‘How did the COVID-19 pandemic influence the adoption of Big Health Data infrastructure in the policy process of the EU?’. To answer this question, the study will discuss the development of a policy monopoly concerning digital health in the European Union via a process-tracing method of analysing documents and journals provided by the European Commission, European Parliament and the Council of the European Union and it will also take the public opinion into account. As a result, the method showed that prevailing ideas of using Big Data and AI to protect the public health were already high on the European policy agenda before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, COVID-19 was a crucial factor for the implementation of a pan-European model, in terms of using Big Data and AI to protect public health. It did not radically alter the ideas within Europe but accelerated the EU policy process. In this degree of agreement with the literature on critical junctures that it causes a shift in prevailing ideas, this study opts for a measured tone towards the role of a critical juncture opening up a window of opportunity by causing a shift in prevailing ideas – at the same time – will not underestimate itShow less
The lack of adoption and use of the e-CODEX (e-Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange) system in the European justice domain mirrors the complexity of realising interoperability in Europe....Show moreThe lack of adoption and use of the e-CODEX (e-Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange) system in the European justice domain mirrors the complexity of realising interoperability in Europe. Connecting the information systems of autonomous organisations with the means of technological innovation for improved efficiency can be a difficult task, and requires cooperation between all parties involved. But what drives or holds back organisations to adopt such technological innovations? While much research has been conducted on the adoption of (technological) innovations in the public and private sector, theoretical and empirical research on innovation adoption in a cross-border and judicial context is still lacking. This qualitative explanatory study used a combination of Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework as foundation to examine the relationship between fourteen factors (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability, top management support, slack resources, costs, championship, facilitative leadership, disposition to and readiness for collaboration, trust, external pressure of social networks and network externalities, and legislation and policy) and the adoption of interoperable electronic information sharing by judicial organisations. By using e-CODEX as a case study, this thesis contributes to the literature on IT adoption by adding the cross-border, European, and judicial contexts. E-CODEX (e-Justice Communication via Online Data Exchange) is an example of a voluntary initiative that was developed with European Union (EU) financial support by a number of Member States in 2010. It is a tool based on the principle of interoperability that enables judicial authorities to exchange information and documents in a secure way. It is interoperable because it establishes a decentralised communication network between national IT systems in cross-border civil and criminal procedures. Data was gathered from interviews with members of the e-CODEX project consortium, judicial organisations (previously) participating in e-CODEX pilots, and one organisation that is currently planning to adopt e-CODEX. The findings indicate that all proposed factors in this study seem to be relevant to at least some extent for the adoption of IEIS. However, the findings also show that some factors have greater relevance than others.Show less
This paper examines the case of successful implementation of electronic public procurement platform known as, ‘ProZorro’, in Ukraine. In order to do so, as opposed to existing scholarly work on the...Show moreThis paper examines the case of successful implementation of electronic public procurement platform known as, ‘ProZorro’, in Ukraine. In order to do so, as opposed to existing scholarly work on the topic, this investigation proposes a novel theoretical paradigm that seeks to identify critical success factors that contributed to the success. Accordingly, these are determined through an analysis in relation to existing barriers to electronic procurement implementation in the public sector. Notably, the literature identifies four of those, namely, technical, organizational, social, and financial. Moreover, the results are further examined by taking into account Ukraine’s complex system of governance, which academia brand as ‘neo-patrimonial’. As such, this inquiry builds upon a theory generated by Joel Hellman (1998) in which he explores the conventional reasons of reform backsliding in post-Communist transition countries. Ultimately, the assessment comes to the conclusion that the following success factors were key in overwhelming the aforementioned barriers to implementation, (1) business model, (2) re-engineering of procurement process, (3) successful pilot project, (4) political non-interference at initial stages, and (5) change management. Consequently, a closer examination indicates the first and the fourth factors as key to overcome the hurdle of neo-patrimonial resistance. Such is mainly attributable to the fact that it legitimized ‘ProZorro’ among the wider segment of stakeholders thus, allowing for the creation of a broad coalition in favor of reform, thus e-procurement implementation.Show less
The ever-new emerging technological possibilities provide public authorities with new opportunities to improve service provision and interaction with citizens and optimise their administrative...Show moreThe ever-new emerging technological possibilities provide public authorities with new opportunities to improve service provision and interaction with citizens and optimise their administrative processes. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can support public administrations and especially citizen service offices on this journey. Citizen service offices are the local governments' point of contact for citizens’ service provision in Germany. To improve service provision and interaction between the public institutions and citizens, AI-based chatbots have found their ways into citizens service offices. However, this process is certainly not without challenges. Barriers to interoperability refer to challenges that can impact the administrative ability to collaborate across departments and agencies to provide seamless online services to citizens. Regarding the adoption of AI-based chatbots, barriers to interoperability are especially relevant as chatbots need to be able to obtain data from different departments. This study aimed to examine to what extent barriers to interoperability impact the adoption of AI-based chatbots in German citizen service offices. This question has been explored through semi-structured expert interviews conducted with representatives of the German cities Berlin, Hamburg, Heidenheim an der Brenz, and Munich. The results suggest that political and organisational barriers are impacting the adoption of AI-based chatbots greatly. Challenges have been reported but mostly only by one, or a maximum of two, participants and most of these barriers have been overcome in the early stages of the adoption. Legal and regulatory, as well as technological barriers to interoperability, on the other hand, were found to be the most impacting ones regarding the AI-based chatbot adoption in German citizen service offices.Show less
More and more media outlets and politicians are paying attention to the subject of political microtargeting, and with this increased attention comes an increasing awareness around the problems that...Show moreMore and more media outlets and politicians are paying attention to the subject of political microtargeting, and with this increased attention comes an increasing awareness around the problems that arise with the use of political microtargeting. These problems relate to ethical questions around the collecting and processing of the personal data of citizens, questions on transparency and accountability of both online platforms and political parties, and questions on how microtargeting fragments the public debate. How should governments handle these problems? What is the best way to regulate political microtargeting? This thesis contributes to research by establishing a framework for the analysis of policy on political microtargeting that can be used to examine whether the policy in a certain country or area effectively tackles the problems that come with the use of political microtargeting. The result is an analytical framework that offers two sets of criteria, one set on the regulation of online platforms regarding political microtargeting and one set on the regulation of political parties regarding political microtargeting. This framework is then tested by applying it to the Dutch case in a policy analysis by gathering evidence and judging the Dutch case based on the formulated criteria. Based on these findings, this thesis makes recommendations for improving regulation in the Netherlands, highlighting improvements for clear, technology-neutral, legislation for online platforms, better legislation for a transparent and level playing field for all political parties, requirements for party finance, and increasing the capacity of external oversight. In turn, this thesis shows that the established analytical framework can be effectively used in a policy analysis of a country or area to judge their regulation on political microtargeting.Show less
The increasing reliance on ICT within the public sector has changed the working ways of governmental bureaucracies from a paper reality to a digital one, and governments are eager to use new...Show moreThe increasing reliance on ICT within the public sector has changed the working ways of governmental bureaucracies from a paper reality to a digital one, and governments are eager to use new technologies for their business operations and reap its benefits just as the private sector does. Since technological advancement is driven by the private sector, and humans are increasingly accustomed to the speed and efficiency that technology brings, citizens are expecting governments to adapt and digitize as well. As such, an important trend that is being experimented with is the usage of self-learning algorithms, particularly Artificial Intelligence or AI. Since AI runs on data, it is only logical that an organization such as the government which holds an abundance of data would like to put this to use. Data that is collected might hold certain patterns, if you can find such patterns and assume that the near future will not be much different from when the data was collected, predictions can be made. However, AI systems are often deemed opaque and inscrutable, and this can collide with the judicial accountability that governments have towards their citizens in the form of transparency. Based on the assumption that the information that is used by AI i.e. data and algorithms, is not similar to documentary information that governments are accustomed to, there are added obstacles for governments to overcome in order to achieve the desired effects of transparency. The goal of this research is to explore the barriers to transparency in governmental usage of AI in decision-making by analyzing governmental motivation towards (non-) transparency and how the complex nature of AI relates to this. The question that stems from this is: What are the obstacles related to being transparent in AI-assisted governmental decision-making? In the study, a comparison is made between the obstacles to transparency for documentary information and the obstacles that experts encounter in practice related to AI, a contribution follows. Based on the literature, it is hypothesized that governments are limited by privacy and safety issues, lack of expertise, cooperation and inadequate disclosure. The results show that the obstacles are more nuanced and an addition to the theory is appropriate. The most important findings being: that data and algorithms should not be treated as documentary information; the importance of the policy domain in determinant for the degree of transparency; that lack of cooperation causes multiple obstacles to transparency such as self-censoring, accountability issues, superficial debate, false promises, inability to explain and ill-suited systems; that more information disclosure isn’t always better; and that the public sector should rethink their overreliance on private sector business models. All these obstacles can be associated to losing sight of the fundamental function of government, serving citizens.Show less
This research explains and specifies the factors that determine effective evaluation in digital social policies. While most research focuses on how to evaluate, a common understanding on what makes...Show moreThis research explains and specifies the factors that determine effective evaluation in digital social policies. While most research focuses on how to evaluate, a common understanding on what makes this evaluation effective is missing. Since the decentralization measures of the Dutch government in 2015, municipalities are mainly responsible for social policy. To carry this out as effectively as possible, municipalities started working with Big Data. This is still a new phenomenon for many local governments and the approach to evaluation and monitoring seems difficult. By carrying out an ex-post and ex-ante meta-evaluation on the evaluation plans of social policies in Rotterdam and Kerkrade, this research uncovers the mechanisms of effective evaluation in digitalized social policy. The analysis indicates that it is important to include both internal and external partners in the evaluation, a mix of qualitative and quantitative evaluation is needed, stakeholders and beneficiaries should be consulted, and frequent monitoring should take place to ensure effective evaluation.Show less
