More E-Government, Less Street-Level Bureaucracy? On Legitimacy and the Human Side of Public Administration

ABSTRACT

To explain how legitimacy is maintained, scholars argue that more attention must be paid to how citizens experience their encounters with public officials. In this article we ask whether greater elements of e-government may affect street-level bureaucrats and their ability to build legitimacy of the political system. Our answers are based on a case study of a Swedish municipality that was a pioneer in developing a strong position of street-level bureaucrats in the 1980s, and later also in implementing e-government reforms. We show that e-government challenges certain practical preconditions for legitimacy-building, inherent to the street-level bureaucratic role, such as responsive listening and situational adaptation.

• E-government
• legitimacy
• local government
• street-level bureaucrats
• welfare state

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabriella Jansson

Gabriella Jansson has a Ph.D. in political science from the Department of Management and Engineering at Linköping University. Her research interests are in public administration reforms, e-government, and local government.

Gissur Ó. Erlingsson

Gissur Ó. Erlingsson is an associate professor at the Centre for Municipality Studies at Linköping University. His research interests are in local democracy, the quality of public administration, and political parties.