Gabriella Jansson

Electronic services in the public sector : A conceptual framework

Electronic services provided by governmental organizations, here referred to as public e-services, are frequently discussed in the e-government literature. There is, however, little consensus on th ...

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.