Abstract: Citizenship implies a certain model of relationship between citizens and their government. This type of relationship can be conceived in several ways. Citizenship can be presented in the form of an object to be governed in various ways. Using the year research-action study, we elaborated a typology of citizenship management using Information and Computer Technologies composed of four modes: E-administration, E-government, E-governance and “The Learning City”. In the “e-administration” mode, the citizen is considered as a « consumer of rights » claiming personalized and efficient public services. It corresponds to a government « for the people » with a strategy of citizen satisfaction improvement. The second mode, that we call “e-government” reflects a vision of a relatively passive citizen-agent, who responds to his duties. Based on the need of quantifying and comparing solutions, this government of the people relies on regular consultations in order to improve the policy’s acceptance. In this perspective, electronic voting is the most appropriate tool, because it facilitates the communication of citizens’ opinions to government, while conserving a consultative characteristic. In the “e-governance” mode, the citizen is considered an active agent of local democracy. The citizen is now considered as a source of ideas and initiatives that provides a mutual enrichment. The e-governance model can launch a reflection on the local government‘s knowledge management capacity. This could then result in a fourth type of the citizen relationship management, which would not be a government of the people, for the people or by the people, but according to the people. We called this mode “the Learning City”. The logic underlying this approach would be: “learn how to learn”, defining a range of possible actions, choosing the decision corresponding to the criteria considered to be essential to the success. The citizens would at the same time be actors and determinants of the rules. The role of the local officials and the corresponding ICT tools remain to be imagined.
Keywords: e-Administration, e-Government, e-Governance, learning organization, Citizen Relationship Management, local government, ICT.
1. Introduction
Currently, we can note three tendencies:
· Increased involvement of the public in the decision-making process: Public decision makers try to involve citizens in decision-making process without excessive costs and loss of efficiency, but do not know how to do it
· Development of Citizen Relationship Management: Public organizations seek to improve the services rendered to the citizen, by reducing the cost and time, and are looking for tools
· Emergence of e-management: The emergence of e-management shows that the integration of ICTs in organizations makes it possible to generate new practices and services and to reduce the cost and the time of the services rendered
Public managers could then seek in ICT possibilities to generate new practices of citizenship or to make the existing practices more effective, in order to increase the involvement of citizens in the decision-making process and to improve the services rendered by public organization. Telecommunication offers new perspectives for electronic citizenship through polls and e-voting. These tools seem particularly suitable for "citizen-consumers" who have gradually become accustomed to the quality of service offered by ICTs and more demanding and more critical of public organizations. Thus, we could then regard the citizens as "customers" of public services. The work then consists of studying a relationship to the citizen, and considering the impact of e-management on this relationship. The question is: How can a local government integrate the potential benefits of the ICTs in its interactions with the citizens? The aim is to give public organizations a model for positioning their strategies and choosing adequate tools. Citizenship defines the political design of organization. Citizenship implies a certain model of relationship between citizens and their government. This type of relationship can be conceived in several ways. Citizenship would then be presented in the form of an object to be governed in various ways. We will limit the field of research to citizen-relationship management. We will analyze the literature, highlighting the contributions and limits. We will then propose a method and elaborate a new model.
2. Results: A model of three types of citizen relationship management
We have defined three modes of local citizenship management using ICTs: e-Administration, e-Government and e-governance. Each of the three modes we describe presents distinctive characteristics. All three may intersect and overlap.
2.1 e-Administration
The city works with sector representatives. Each representative is in charge of collecting information and claims from the sector’s inhabitants. This is generally done through a specific document to be filled in. This document is transmitted to the town hall where the administration processes it. Administrative renewal with faster and more efficient bureaucracies, digital access to government information, fostered information initiatives (to establish databanks of social information), tax filing, payment processing, etc. Tools offered by ICTs are mainly e-procedures and databanks. With the development of Customer Relationship Management in the private sector, we can foresee the necessity of developing Citizen Relationship Management in the public sector.
2.2 e-Government
The town would like to consult a panel of citizens regularly on different subjects dealing with local community life. This would increase the awareness of inhabitants’ needs and wishes and would enable local officials to develop appropriate policies. Members of the panel would be given a card with which they can be consulted anonymously via the Internet. If the experimental works, the project could be extended to the whole population of the town. The town foresees a system of general and regular consultation (such as the Swiss voting system). This management mode, that we call “e-Government” reflects a vision of a relatively passive citizen-agent, who responds to his duties. Based on the need of quantifying and comparing solutions, this government of the people relies on regular consultations in order to improve the policy’s acceptance. In this perspective, electronic voting is the most appropriate tool, because it facilitates the communication of citizens’ opinions to government, while conserving a consultative characteristic.
2.3 e-Governance
The town works in collaboration with the association which has developed a website dedicated to citizens. This website is a place of discussion and debate for all the city’s inhabitants. It is independent from the official city website. The editorial committee is composed of local representatives, associations and citizens. This website could be used to help citizens’ propositions and initiatives to emerge. If a subject or a project generates a lot of interest in the community, it can be submitted for public consultation. The town could enter a dynamic movement where e-governance would feed into e-Government, where policies would be evaluated thanks to the key indicators developed by the e-Administration. In this mode that we call “e-governance”, the citizen is considered an active agent of local democracy. « Participation (…) integrates a more active dimension. The citizens take part in a decision-making process. The aim is to enable inhabitants to express their opinions, then to collect these opinions (…) and to integrate them into the final decision». The distinction between government and governance is important: « Governance stresses the way in which decisions are made, while government stresses the way in which these decisions are carried out ». The « pull » system changes to a « push » system where information emerges from the ground. In the model of e-governance, interactions between citizens and government are necessary. “The participatory model contains a recognition that knowledge is discursive, contingent and changeable – that it emerges through interaction”. The citizen is no longer perceived as a “layman” (unfamiliar) of public policy by the local elected. The citizen is now considered as a source of ideas and initiatives that provides a mutual enrichment. The e-governance model can launch a reflection on the local government‘s knowledge management capacity. To conclude this step, it seems that a town which enables the interactions of these three modes of local citizenship management is a town which takes into consideration the citizen in his diversity and complexity. The citizen can at the same time be a customer of public services, a « passive » agent obeying a policy he was consulted on, and an active actor taking part in the decision-making process.
3. The fourth type: The Learning City
We consider that these modes of management are not isolated from each other. They can co-exist and interact together. However, in fact, there could be different steps in the city’s strategies. It seems that a town starts by developing elements of E-Administration, then implements the E-government and finally only considers the e-governance. The question is: what is the following stage that no city has reached, or even considered, for the moment? This new form of city, which does not exist yet, remains to be imagined. If we use the concept of learning organization to analyze this, we notice that e-governance seems to function on the principle of a single loop learning process. The next stage, the fourth mode of management could be based on a double loop learning process.
4. e-Governance or a single loop learning process
In the e-governance model, citizens can make proposals and contribute to the decision-making process according to the rules defined by the local government. But, another specify, when the rules don’t allow the adaptation to the environment, the system breaks down because it tried to preserve a model of behavior which is no longer appropriate. For Morgan, the more complex cybernetic systems, such as the human brain or the computer, have the capacity to learn how to learn. They are often able to detect and correct errors in the standards of operation and thus influence the rules which guide their own operation. The ICTs would offer the city the opportunity to have a double loop learning process.
5. The integration of the « moral values » component of citizenship in the double loop learning process
The double loop learning process relies on the capacity of the organization to remain open to the changes which occur in the environment and on the capacity to redefine the standards of its projects. Here we have a radically new process of planning: whereas the traditional vision consisted of the production of a project with clear targets, cybernetics shows that it might be wiser, from the systemic point of view, to concentrate on the definition of the constraints. Knowing the values of the group and their limits allows us to define a range of possible actions. An action chosen accordingly will not be necessarily the best, but it will fulfill the criteria considered to be essential to its success. The double loop learning process then consists of being able to consider the situation and to question the rules or standards of operation (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Double loop learning process
Our model is based on the components of citizenship (right-duty-participation). The double loop learning process allows us to integrate the "moral values "component of citizenship: This could then result in a fourth type of the citizen relationship management (Table 1), which would not be a government of the people, for the people or by the people, but according to the people. Logic underlying this approach would be: “learn
how to learn”, defining a range of possible actions, choosing the decision corresponding to the criteria considered to be essential to the success. The citizens would at the same time be actors and determinants of the rules. The role of the local officials and the corresponding ICT tools remain to be imagined.
Table 1: Four types Citizen Relationship Management using ICTs
E-Administration | E-government | E-governance | The Learning City | |
Country’s principle | Government for the people | Government of the people | Government by the people | Government according to the people |
Citizenship’s component | Rights | Duties | Participation | Moral values |
Role given to the citizen | Consumer | “Passive” agent | Actor “Active” agent | Defining the rules to follow |
Underlying logic | Delivering services, improving satisfaction of citizens, presenting local government policy | Improving the chance of a policy’s success | Encouraging deliberation, participation and development of local democracy | Learn how to learn. Deciding according to mutually determined criteria |
Role of local elected | Regulating, improving administration performance | Understand the opinion of the citizens using consultation. Improving acceptance of a policy by citizens. | Protecting free expression, regulating infrastructures | To be created |
