Understanding E

Focus on electronic service delivery may paradoxically 
widen gap between citizens and administration
Throughout the world, national and local governments are implementing 
web services to increase citizen orientation, reduce red tape, create one-stop
shops, decrease the administrative burden on citizens and corporations, and
increase citizens’ trust in government (for a more complete discussion, refer 
to Chapter 6 on e-government). By increasing the quality of public service deliv-
ery, it is hoped to bridge the often-felt gap that exists between corporations and
citizens on the one hand, and government agencies and administrations on the
other hand.
Although it seems reasonable that citizens’ trust increases as the level 
of quality of services increase, Fountain (2001) argues that the opposite might be
the case. She notes that public organizations are not solely concerned with 
service delivery and points to the multifaceted (policy making and executive)
character of many public sector organizations. Addressing citizens as consumers
and defining government as a production company ignores the inherent political
character of public service delivery. Public organizations delivering 
services are supposed to be not only responsive to the needs of customers, but
also accountable to Good Citizens (Schudson, 1998) or citoyens, and to voters
(Bekkers and Homburg, 2005). According to Fountain (2001), emphasizing 
service delivery and ignoring notions of citizenship, other than being a customer
Introduction
5