I’m really pleased with how this paper came together. It’s the first thing I’ve written at the OECD, and the first ‘academic’ work that’s been published in my name.

Available as a PDF.

What’s the TL;DR?

This paper exists because the OECD more broadly is interested in this idea of “citizen well-being”. There’s a cross-cutting horizontal project about it with different teams writing up how their work is important to the concept.

And we’re no different. So what impact can digital government have on citizen well-being? Well, my argument in the paper is that there are three characteristics of government that create outcomes that improve well-being. They are responsive, protective and trustworthy:

  • A responsive government that:
    • involves people throughout the design and delivery lifecycle of a policy to
      ensure that it understands their needs, can evolve to reflect what’s learnt from
      them and proactively react to changing circumstances;
    • makes every effort to engage the public according to their habits and their
      needs, especially in the design and delivery of public services; and
    • considers the design of government and its end to end services rather than being
      content with the existing architecture of the public sector, and a focus on
      implementing particular technologies.
  • A protective government that:
    • prioritises the protection of the public from external threats and ensures that the
      services it provides are secure;
    • encourages efforts to distribute trust throughout social networks and the
      political discourse; and
    • has a far sighted approach to regulation that by focusing on outcomes can reflect
      and safeguard against the implications of innovation without being focused on
      specific technologies and which can also establish quality standards for the
      delivery of government services.
  • A trustworthy government that:
    • successfully balances the needs of government to be closed and secure, with the
      needs of citizens for government to be open and responsive by using digital
      tools to help build public trust and confidence in governments;
    • delivers high quality and reliable services that are characterised by a humility
      of understanding their users and being open to challenge and feedback;
    • shows citizens what is being done to improve their lives through increased transparency and an ongoing commitment to openness.

The blurb

Informed by the OECD’s well-being framework, this Working Paper considers how the experience of civic engagement and governance is being transformed and explores how governments can harness the potential of digital technologies and data to develop better outcomes for better lives. The paper proposes that in order to maximise the relationship between digital government activity and citizen well-being, government focus should be on benefits that are not only material in terms of the quality of services, but that reflect the intellectual and emotional benefits derived from a different approach to government interactions with its constituents. The paper suggests that the relationship between digital government and citizen well-being is best encapsulated by the outcomes which follow from a government that is responsive, protective and trustworthy.

Available as a PDF.