Centralization Revisited? Problems on Implementing Integrated Service Delivery in The Netherlands

  • Authors:
  • Jeroen Kraaijenbrink

  • Affiliations:
  • -

  • Venue:
  • EGOV '02 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Electronic Government
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

In the Netherlands, the development of integrated public service delivery has been an important topic for over a decade. Despite the investments, the results are meager. In the literature, an overwhelming and contradictory amount of conceivable problems is mentioned that can explain these lagging results. Four case studies were carried out to find out which of these problems are most pressing in the particular context of integrated public service delivery. These are found to be: (1) indistinct and subdivided responsibilities, (2) focus on the autonomy of the own organization, and (3) insufficient scale. Given these problems, and given their different importance in the four cases, it is argued that the effective development of integrated public service delivery in the Netherlands requires more centralization.