Reinventing urban government in the Netherlands: an American perspective

Abstract

In this article, the Dutch and American authors examine a recent Dutch experience in reinventing a key urban service in Rotterdam. The study focus is on the creation of a public authority, the Urban Energy Corporation (UEC), to replace the former municipal electric power department. The comparative study develops from an American perspective where public authorities are viewed with considerable skepticism and distrust. The authors address two questions in their inquiry. First, how closely does UEC (later ENACO) conform to the structural and functional requisites of an American public authority? Here the authors apply Donald Axelrod's twelve-part “Duck Test” as a measure of conformity between the two countries. The second line of inquiry seeks to determine whether UEC will be subjected to accountability pitfalls similar to those experienced by American public authorities. The authors find that, while the Dutch have embedded certain oversight checks on the UEC charter, there is cause for some concern that UEC could become too profit oriented and that it is already too far removed from citizen oversight.