Lianne Visser, MSc (Project lead)
Dr. Eduard Schmidt
Dr. Bernard Bernards
Project Title
Walking the tightrope between responsive governance and democratic accountability
Behavioral change(s) addressed
The tension between responsiveness and stimulating professional autonomy versus grip and democratic legitimacy is strongly felt by Alderman at the local level of government, as they are responsible for the provision of many social services. On the one hand, aldermen are public managers, responsible for the internal management towards their employees. This involves, for example, a critical look at control mechanisms, digitization and algorithmization, and the autonomy of professionals in the service sector (Visser & van Hulst, 2023). On the other hand, aldermen are politically responsible and must account for their policy to the municipal council. At the same time, the prevention of arbitrariness, lawfulness and efficiency and, certainly at the local level, incident-driven politics play a role, which actually increases the call for customization. Although the literature often explores the tension between the vertical line (accountability to the board) and the horizontal line (collaboration across organizational boundaries) (Torfing et al., 2020), we identify and analyze tensions on the vertical line itself, between democratic accountability upwards and management of implementation downwards. This way, we study the behavioral change of a group that is often overlooked in studies customized services in particular and street-level bureaucracy more generally. By centralizing this political-administrative actor, we aim to develop a better understanding of how the tension between customized work and general policy is shaped in the daily work of municipalities.
Theoretical approach
This research contributes to the public administration literature in several ways. Embedding our research in the street-level bureaucracy literature, we make a contribution by including a focus on political-administrative actors. Studies have shown how street-level bureaucrats can use their discretion to tailor public service delivery to specific client needs (Pedersen & Pors, 2023; Visser & Kruyen, 2021). While street-level scholarship still primarily focuses on those working at the frontlines of government, studies increasingly include the management of such street level bureaucrats (Keulemans & Groeneveld, 2019; Møller & Grøn, 2023). These studies show that leadership of frontline supervisors impacts street-level bureaucrats and their engagement with citizens. Therefore, the ability of street-level bureaucrats to be responsive to citizens’ needs depends on how they are managed. While the literature on street-level management is continuously expanding, the focus has so far remained on direct supervisors. We propose to extend this focus and include political-administrative leaders. Especially in local government, the everyday work activities of political-administrative leaders such as aldermen have a great deal of influence on the ins and outs within the organization, and they are a unique switching point where political-administrative and organizational issues come together. Moreover, closely following Aldermen ensures that our research contributes to what Van Dorp & ’t Hart (2018) call an “all too rare up-close and personal account of what working at the top or [local] government feels like”. Secondly, we are particularly concerned about the value conflicts that play a role in the work of Aldermen when they are involved in tailor-made solutions. In general, value conflicts in public administration have been described (de Graaf et al., 2016; de Graaf & Paanakker, 2014; van der Wal et al., 2015), but little attention is paid to value conflicts in the work of Aldermen and the role that value conflicts play in enabling customization (but see: Schmidt et al., 2019). Moreover, although much research into value conflicts looks at which values can conflict with each other (van der Wal et al., 2015), there is still little research that explicitly looks at what kind of behavioral repertoire is used to balance between different values (but see Oldenhof et al., 2014). By using a situational work perspective (Klemsdal et al., 2022), we try to visualize and better understand the behavioral repertoire that managers use every day to balance between responsive steering and democratic accountability
Empirical research strategies
This study focuses specifically on youth care, because here the importance of customization is great, as well as the pressure on political accountability and the legitimacy of decisions. Nine aldermen will be followed for a year for the study. Due to the explorative nature of this project, we want variation in the working context of the aldermen and we have opted for aldermen in large (>80,000 inhabitants), medium-sized (up to 30 to 80,000 inhabitants) and small municipalities (up to 30,000 inhabitants). They are shadowed and interviewed three times a year. The aim is to gain insight into how aldermen combine their different tasks at different times in the political and budget cycle, both in the peak of the storm and in the lee.
Possibilities for inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration
This research complements research that is currently already being done at the Institute of Public Administration and in the Population Health promotion area. In addition, the research is designed in close collaboration with practice. Contact has already been made for this with potential partner organizations, including Youth Care Netherlands, VNG, the Aldermen’s Association and the municipality of The Hague. Together with these organizations and other interested parties, a learning community is set up. This learning community facilitates the broad utilization of knowledge by enabling co-creation of knowledge: the partner organizations are involved in the design and implementation of the research. In this way it is ensured that the research answers questions that match knowledge gaps in practice and valorization in this proposal goes a considerable step further than just the periodic sharing of research results by the researchers. By setting up a learning community, organizations can also learn from each other.
Social transition(s) addressed
The project looks into the transition towards providing customized services. Customization is the provision of non-standardized services to fit citizens’ needs. Public organizations are faced with the task of regaining citizens’ trust in the government. The handling of gas extraction in Groningen, the problems with the compensation scheme for victims of the benefits affair or the abrupt termination of youth care after the eighteenth birthday of young people are a few examples of things that have increased social unease. Customization is often seen as a solution here, because it allows responding to the individual circumstances of citizens (Bernards & Schmidt, 2021). But with the rise of customization, criticism is also growing. Customization potentially leads to arbitrary decision-making and less transparency. This way, customization can actually increase citizens’ distrust in government. Furthermore, customization can reduce the grip that parliamentarians have on policy and thus weaken democratic legitimacy