Street-Level Bureaucracy and E-Government

AbstractWith the intensive use of information and communication technologies, governments are transforming into e-governments. While public management research has given increased attention to this subject lately, this article reviews the limited literature that deals with the impacts of e-government technologies on street-level bureaucracies. A twofold argument is being developed. First, what can be called the ‘curtailment thesis’, stressing the reduction or disappearance of frontline policy discretion, is addressed. Second, the ‘enablement thesis’ gets attention, highlighting how technologies provide frontline workers and citizens with additional action resources. The article concludes with propositions for a future research agenda on the topic.Key words: E-governmentstreet-level bureaucracydiscretionaccountability ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and also Peter Hupe (Erasmus University, Rotterdam) and Yannis Papadopoulos (University of Lausanne) for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.Notes1. Or a guichet in the terminology used by French sociologists like Weller (Citation1999) or Dubois (Citation2010).2. The same empowerment of frontline agents towards their clients through IT systems has also been observed in a study by Dennis (Citation2006) conducted in a US welfare state department: ‘This way (showing budget screens to the client to explain adverse actions), they seem to question the authority and the decisions less than before. I mean “the computer says what the computer says” is the way we can present it and they seem less willing to protest against the outcomes’ (574), quoted from an interview with a frontline worker.3. For example, the website provides claimants with the possibility to calculate precisely how much social benefits they would get depending on various criteria, such as marital status or other conditions of resources. Some claimants have therefore presented themselves as being single instead of married, because they knew from the website calculator it would be more beneficial for them.4. Our own translation from French.