Dimensions of scenario
Disruptive environment
Trust in government
Government focus on inclusive services
Short abstract
Society has changed dramatically because of demographic and security-related developments. Government has been able to catch up with the high expectations from citizens and fulfils a key role in the provision of eServices, using state of play technology. Government provides all inclusive services in order to fulfil the expectations of the public and to bring the instable environment under control.
The scenario characteristics in brief
| Contextual environment | Government | ICT |
|
Increasing social tensions Job mobility European Union build up an common economy Crisis because of unequal resource distribution and welfare Security is very emphasized Big shared service centers |
E-Services Investments in participation Interim provision of public services Media are still the most important decision-shaping power High quality and omnipresent service delivery Network of public agencies Unique European Identity |
Technological and legal means for a broad collection and processing of data Anonymisation & Encryption based on automated data access rights management Technology is transparent and does not disturb human interactions and participation in a negative way |
The scenario characteristics in detail
Contextual environment
Social tensions have unquestionably grown due to the emergence of a knowledge society, in which chances on success are for a great part determined by education levels. Government has responded with an increase in public spending on education and other social services, so as to distribute chances as fair as possible; however, this has not been able to reverse the trend. The job mobility of people, across all layers of society, has increased; people really feel that the European Union is a uniform economic area. The cultural differences between different countries have lessened, but the tensions between different ethnic and religious groups have widened, both worldwide, as well as on the European continent. The reasons are obvious; the large inflow of immigrants to fill up crises in the availability of labor, and the increased global tensions around the unequal spread of resources and wealth.
Governments and their stakeholders
In society, government is highly pervasive in order to guarantee safety, although this only goes at the cost of privacy. However, this has not caused many problems, as the concept of privacy has been better understood. Technological and legal measures account for large scale data collection and mining at the one hand ? with a positive effect on national security, but at the same time regulates data access and the usage of information in a smart way ? by using anonymisation and encryption in combination with automated data access rights management.
E-services have become one of the key pillars of government function, both upstream (eliciting participation) as well as downstream (providing public services). Both technological development as well as a full-grown insight into the function of technology in society made that technology is as transparent as possible, so that it does not negatively disturb human interactions and participation. The enforcement of rules still requires human intervention, so that ambiguity can be accounted for, and state-individual relations have not been reduced to technocratism. The media are still a major democratic power force, but the role of the mass media has diminished in favor of more differentiated (online) media channels, which are highly interactive and as such construct the public opinion even on specific matters.
The broad responsibility of government for the common good is reflected in a high-quality and omnipresent service delivery, mainly through electronic channels. The structure of the public administration has been adapted to make it more agile, inspired by the business and internet environment. Now, the scope of governmental agencies is not so much determined by their legal mandate, but agencies are increasingly working in networks so as to achieve common goals, where each organization can exploit its core capabilities. In these networks for the common good, private parties are included, too. Their role is not only limited to the execution of services, but they can actively participate in the development of new services. This has resulted in a good alignment of policy development with its implementation. A European standard has been established that gives each citizen a unique and secure virtual identity that can also be used in interactions with private parties.
Technology
Government has taken up an active role in helping citizens with formalities imposed by laws and regulations. Many services are being provided semi-automatically, by informing people about their (administrative) duties while at the same time suggesting an answer, so that only consent is needed. This parallels a general development in information systems, visible in the private sector, too, where technology is more and more helping people to selectively use information and assure its quality, taking over (time-consuming) search for information out of the hands of humans. Many e-processes are being executed by large shared service centers, so that economies of scale advantages can be used throughout the European Union. For the purposes of controllability, cost and reliability, large data centers are in use.
