Expectations Of Citizens Research Articles

Making a difference? Attracting new generations into local government

ABSTRACT The nature of local government work has radically changed over the past fifty years. Local government officers could once be characterised as processing transactional work (e.g. rent collection). However, the changing nature of public services and increasing expectations of citizens have required more transformational and relational work, alongside new roles and skills. This context may now be shifting again. Fiscal pressures may prompt a return to narrow definitions of statutory responsibilities and transactional relationships. We focus here on the implications of these changes for newer generations of public servants, particularly so-called Millennials. Younger workers express a desire to ‘make a difference’ and don’t necessarily see local government as the sector in which to do this. To recruit and retain the best public servants, local government needs to provide a vision of hope for the future and to articulate how it can be the sector where people can make a difference.

Post-Removal Mounds: Earthworks Rising in Oklahoma

Abstract: Twenty-first-century Oklahoma—where so many Southeastern, Ohio Valley, Mississippi Valley, and other mound-building and mound-stewarding peoples were forcibly removed in the nineteenth century—is witnessing a reactivation of Indigenous practices of building and stewarding large-scale, highly graphic, multiply encoded earthworks. Replicas of historical platform mounds feature prominently at the Chickasaw Cultural Center that opened in rural south-central Oklahoma in 2010 and the Choctaw Cultural Center that opened in rural southeastern Oklahoma in 2021, while a futuristic, spiraling "promontory mound" forms an integral component of the multitribal First Americans Museum that opened outside urban Oklahoma City in 2021. Constructed and curated to meet the expectations of both tribal citizens and diverse Native and non-Native tourists, how do these new earthen structures and their contextualizing environments occupy space, organize relations, and make meaning within their specific contexts of cultural celebration, Indigenous-centered education, and immersive visitor experience? And what do they tell us about the possibilities for Indigenous aesthetics and architectural design in the future?

The failure of the United Kingdom’s accounting and fiscal governance

PurposeThis paper aims to unravel the puzzle that the United Kingdom’s high-quality government accounting and fiscal architecture is associated with low-quality outcomes, including poor productivity growth, high public debt, public services which do not meet citizen expectations and historically high levels of taxation. It contributes to public sector accounting research in the fields of fiscal transparency and governance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses Miller and Power’s (2013) economization framework and Dunsire’s (1990) concept of collibration to explain why being a global leader in public sector accounting reform and in fiscal and monetary architecture has not protected the UK from weak governance. The intersection of economization’s roles of accounting with modes of government accounting clarifies the puzzle.FindingsWhereas accruals government accounting contributes to fiscal transparency, this is not a sufficient condition for well-judged policy and its effective application. Collibration is the dominant mechanism for mediation in the fiscally centralized UK, but it has failed to deliver stable outcomes, in part because Parliament is limited in its ability to hold back inappropriate behaviour by the Executive. Subjectivization has disrupted adjudication because governments at all levels resist constraints on their behaviour, with unpredictable and often damaging consequences.Originality/valueThis paper provides insights through the combined lens of economization and modes of government accounting, demonstrating the practical value of this conceptualization. Although some causes for unsatisfactory outcomes are specific to the UK, there are cautions for accounting and fiscal reformers in other countries, such as Member States of the European Union.

Policy brief Belgian EBCP Mirror Group patient and citizen engagement

Rights, preferences, needs and expectations of patients and citizens can only be respected and addressed if they are well understood. As such, a continuous, systematic and formalised dialogue between patients, citizens and policy makers is required to ensure ethical and socially appropriate cancer prevention, diagnostics, treatment and care. Relying on donations and project-based funding is not a sustainable way to ensure patient involvement and representativeness in policy. Patient organizations need long term, structural support to fulfil their role as patient representatives and support network in order to deliver the best possible service and to play their role as a professional representative of their disease-specific community. Inequalities can only be tackled if they are properly identified. This requires the definition of appropriate determinants fit for (inter)national comparison and extension and linkage of good quality data registries for cancer that allow the monitoring these inequalities.

Performance information, expectations and satisfaction with public service delivery in the context of co-production initiatives

ABSTRACT Many studies on public service satisfaction have treated citizen expectations to be exogenous, focusing mainly on how these expectations influence satisfaction. This study examines how performance information shapes predictive and normative expectations in the context of co-production initiatives in Dutch primary education, and in turn examines how updated performance information and expectations jointly determine satisfaction with public services. A survey experiment among 1,307 parents with school-attending children shows that performance expectations are endogenous to prior school performance, but not to co-production initiatives. Our analysis provides evidence that citizens’ expectations strengthen the negative effects of performance decline on satisfaction.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT: INTERACTION CHANNELS AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

Modern technologies and the Internet have significantly altered how people, organizations, and governments interact. Social media platforms have evolved beyond personal communication tools to become powerful instruments for public administration. They enable governments to communicate more effectively with citizens, enhance transparency, and engage the public in governance processes. However, challenges exist in optimizing these tools. This article aims to analyze the role of social media in public administration, identify the most effective channels of interaction, and propose recommendations for their use. It emphasizes the need to enhance government communication strategies to meet rising citizen expectations regarding transparency and accessibility of administrative services. Research reveals that social media allows governments to rapidly disseminate information on emergencies, new laws, and policies, thereby reducing the time needed to inform the public and increasing their engagement. The ability to organize public discussions, gather feedback, and conduct surveys via social media fosters a more democratic and inclusive governance process. In addition to benefits, the article highlights potential risks of using social media in public administration, such as cybersecurity issues, personal data protection, and the spread of misinformation. Authors recommend developing strategies to minimize these risks and maximize the positive impact of social media on public administration processes. In conclusion, the article convincingly underscores the significance of social media as tools of modern governance, contributing to increased efficiency, transparency, and openness of government structures to the public

Artefacts of disaster risk reduction: conceptualizing bottom-up initiatives of climate action in informal settlements

PurposeDisaster risk reduction is of prime importance in informal settlements in the Global South, where several forms of vulnerability coexist. Policy and official programmes, however, rarely respond to the needs and expectations of citizens and local leaders living in these settlements. Even though these agents constantly attempt to reduce risks in their own way, we know very little about their activities, motivations and effective impact on risk reduction. Here we seek to conceptualize bottom-up initiatives to better grasp their origins, limitations and success.Design/methodology/approachThrough a four-year action-research project in Colombia, Cuba and Chile, we theorize about the production of change by local agents. Through detailed case studies we explored the activism of 17 local leaders. Through narrative analysis we studied their motivations and explanations. Finally, by documenting 22 initiatives, we revealed effective changes in space.FindingsIn the face of risk and disasters, residents and leaders in informal settings engaged in symbolic, physical and social spaces of interaction. Their actions were guided by trust, emotions, time cycles and activism. Local agency was justified by narratives about risk and climate change that differ from those of authorities and scholars.Research limitations/implicationsThere is still limited understanding of bottom-up initiatives in informal settings. It is crucial to conceptualize their origins, limitations and success. The focus on three specific countries necessitates further research for broader applicability and understanding.Practical implicationsA better comprehension of bottom-up actions is crucial for informing policies and programmes aimed at reducing risk in informal settings. Stakeholders must recognize the political, social and cultural roles of these actions for more impactful climate action.Originality/valueWe borrow Simon’s concept of “artefact” to introduce the notion of “Artefacts of Disaster Risk Reduction”, providing insights into the multifaceted nature of bottom-up initiatives. We also emphasize the simultaneous political and phenomenological character of these actions, contributing to a deeper understanding of their origins and impact.

Factors Affecting User Experience of E-Government Services: An Exploratory Review

As governments worldwide increasingly embrace digital transformation, e-government services have become integral in providing citizens with convenient access to public services and information. However, the success of these digital initiatives depends heavily on the user experience (UX) they offer. This paper presents an exploratory review of the user experience factors influencing e-government services. Drawing upon existing literature and empirical studies, this review identifies and examines key factors that shape the UX of e-government platforms, including accessibility, usability, security, personalization, multi-channel accessibility, content quality, and feedback mechanisms. The paper explores how these factors contribute to the public value generated by e-government services, encompassing benefits such as enhanced accessibility, improved efficiency, increased citizen engagement, greater transparency, cost savings, and innovative service delivery. Furthermore, the review highlights the need for governments to prioritize user-centered design principles and continuously evolve their digital offerings to meet the evolving needs and expectations of citizens. By synthesizing existing research and insights, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of the UX factors influencing e-government services and offers valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers seeking to enhance the effectiveness and impact of digital government initiatives

Problems of ensuring transparency of the fiscal sphere of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, as a country with a diverse economy and rich natural resources, strives for sustainable economic development and strengthening its position in the world arena. One of the key factors contributing to the achievement of these goals is transparency in the fiscal sphere.
 The purpose of the article is to study the impact of financial transparency on citizens' trust in local authorities and their behavior in relation to income payment. When explaining the relationship between financial transparency, trust and willingness to pay, it relies on management and public choice theories.
 Based on the conducted research, it was found that financial transparency has a positive effect on citizens' trust in local authorities and their willingness to pay taxes and fees. The study also showed that both financial transparency and trust in local authorities in Kazakhstan are not at a high level.
 The practical significance lies in assessing the importance of financial transparency to increase trust and willingness to pay. Thus, local authorities are encouraged to look for innovative ways to improve the quality and accessibility of financial information for citizens.
 The study shows that the heads of local authorities who maximize the budget prefer to increase the mobilization of income in order to be able to provide more public services that meet the expectations of citizens.

Exploring the functions and role of social impact measurement in enhancing the social value of public-private partnerships: A systematic literature review

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have emerged as promising and dynamic means to provide public goods, infrastructures, and services, thus representing a potential solution to grand societal challenges and social value generation. Despite this, such potential of PPPs is challenged by contractual issues, that can arise from conflicting objectives and trust between public and private actors. Social impact measurement (SIM) can play a crucial role in promoting PPP’s ability to overcome contract-related problems by providing transparency, accountability, and credibility. However, little is known about the characteristics that SIM should possess to enhance such potential. We adopt a systematic literature review method to explore approaches to and functions of SIM in PPPs. We found that when SIM is embedded in collaborative contracts between public and private actors, conducted ex-ante, and entrusted by independent bodies/organizations, it can increase the credibility and objectivity of PPPs. This can in turn enhance trust in the partnerships and support actors to manage the expectations of collaborators and citizens. We advance some recommendations for future research to explore the virtuous, relational mechanisms that may explain how SIM affects public and private actors collaborating for the common good.

Use of ICT and the Application of E-Governance Strategies in Service Delivery by Local Councils in Cameroon: The Case of Local Councils in the Bamenda Municipality

The increasing use of information and communication technology (ICT) by Cameroonians has brought changes in citizen's needs and demands and has raised expectations on how services should be provided. Citizens need to carry out transactions (transactional services) conveniently and obtain accessible, reliable, and sustainable information (information services) from their local government. Unfortunately, this is still far from the reality in some selected local councils in Cameroon, given that they use ICT mainly for administrative and not service delivery purposes. Therefore, this paper's main objective is to establish a link between ICT usage and the empowerment of local councils in the application of e-governance strategies for information and transaction services delivery. The theoretical framework used in the paper included Technology Acceptance, Wider Dissemination, and e-governance Models. The stratified purposive and systematic random sampling techniques were employed to obtain needed data from the Bamenda I, II, and III municipalities in the North West Region. The findings of this paper revealed that a significant number of local councils are already using their ICTs to provide information services. However, none of them so far are using ICT for transactional service delivery purposes. Also, we observed a gap between citizen expectations and local council provision of information and transactional services. This paper found that the use of ICT to apply e-governance strategies would improve local council service delivery in terms of accessibility to information by citizens and sustainability of council information services, also promote transparency in transactions between the council and the citizens, and ease transactions between citizens and local councils in terms of time and cost. Thus, this paper recommends that local councils digitalize manual service delivery processes through their operational IT units. Also, for the Cameroon government to achieve the goals stated in the NDS30 Plan for a Digital Cameroon, it must consider effectively involving local councils in the national digitalization initiatives. This can be done by encouraging them to adapt their information and transactional service delivery procedures to more ICT-based strategies despite the challenges involved.

The Antecedents of Media Capture in Experiential Texts in Nepal: A Critical Review

Based on literature review and analysis of a corpus of documents with references to the evolution of journalism in Nepal, the paper has eclectically and purposively selected publications that referred to the study period, roughly 1950-2000, and had insights on periodicals/ newspapers and the operational environment of the period that was marked by little or no readership and advertising. The paper argues that the unprofessionalism and partisanship evident in media in Nepal reflect its failure to fully transition to independent, impartial content production, the normative expectation of citizens from journalism in democracies. Nepal’s newspapers began exercising formal freedoms in the 1950s but have never been fully independent in practice. The country had low literacy, low readership, and a largely traditional economy when newspaper journalism began, and the early publications sought support from partisan interests and/or government to remain viable.

Метод оценки эффективности мероприятий по формированию комфортной городской среды

The article deals with the urgent problem of inconsistency of the implemented measures to form a comfortable urban environment with the real needs and expectations of citizens. It analyzes the existing methods of assessing such measures, including the index method of assessing the quality of urban environment, used within the framework of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment”, as well as va¬rious sociological studies and surveys. The shortcomings of these approaches, such as the limited sample of respondents and survey topics, are noted. The aim of the study is to develop a method for evaluating measures to form a comfortable urban environment based on semantic comparison of citizens' opinions from social networks, search queries and descriptions of the measures themselves using natural language processing algorithms. Materials and methods. To realize the set goal, an integrated approach consisting of four main stages is used. Stage 1: Pre-processing of initial text data – noise removal, reduction of words to their initial form (lemmatization) using the pymorphy2 library, identification of parts of speech (POS-tagging). Stage 2: Extraction of key word combinations (N-grams) using the TF-IDF algorithm, taking into account the frequency of usage within individual messages and in the whole text array. Calculation of N-grams significance rank. Stage 3: Obtaining a vector representation (word embeddings) for each key N-gram using the pre-trained SBERT neural network model. Step 4: Computing a measure of semantic similarity of vector representations of N-grams from different text arrays (citizens' opinions and event descriptions) based on cosine distance. The texts of citizens' opinions and descriptions of measures aimed at the formation of a comfortable urban environment related to the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug are used as input data. Results. The experiment has shown that most of the analyzed measures aimed at the formation of a comfortable urban environment are poorly correlated with the real needs of citizens. Conclusion. The proposed method can be used in decision support systems to evaluate and select the most effective measures.

Meaningful interventions: Applying a citizen-centric approach to problem-solving in community policing

Abstract Citizens generally express confidence in the police organization, but satisfaction with police services can diminish after voluntary contact with an officer. It appears that officers sometimes struggle to understand what citizens expect and need from them. Victims of crime may not necessarily wish to punish an offender; they may just want to be heard and have their problem resolved. In response, the Dutch police have introduced a pilot to provide ‘meaningful interventions’, such as conflict mediation, as a way to bridge institutional and citizen perspectives successfully. This article presents a qualitative evaluation of the pilot by applying the EMMIE framework, which stands for Effect, Mechanisms, Moderators, Implementation, and Economics, to the available data. In conclusion, meaningful interventions show promise in better aligning police service delivery with the needs and expectations of citizens. Future research is necessary to gain a fuller evidence-based analysis of how meaningful interventions work.

Transformation of Public Service: Rise of Technology, AI and Automation

The rapid advancement of technology has proven beneficial for enhancing efficiency, transparency, responsiveness, and effectiveness in the administration of public services. The internalization of technological innovations, including AI and automation, has become imperative to address the increasing needs and expectations of citizens in modern governance. Various developed and developing countries have revolutionized public services through the adoption of AI and automation. Nepal has made strides in digital governance, advancing from a paper-based form of governance to digital governance. Moreover, the Digital Nepal Framework aspires to restructure the economy through increased service delivery, production, and productivity by harnessing digital technology. The issues of the digital divide, ethical and responsible adoption of AI, citizen engagement and participation, and inclusiveness have been challenging. The government should prioritize investments in digital infrastructure, encourage tech innovations, and promote capacity development in the field of technology.

Public Expectation on Strengthening Municipal Governance through Government Preparedness in the Public Service Delivery

With the introduction of the federal government system in Nepal, two local level elections were held which increased the public expectations of citizens although the power sharing and decentralization system at federal state and local level and local level is relatively difficult. The Ministry of Federal Affair and General Administration (MOFAGA) under the Local Government Operation Act has developed a Local Government Institutional Self-Assessment (LISA) model to assess municipal governance. This study examined the preparedness of Pokhara Metropolitan City for addressing the expectations of the people in public service delivery especially with the application of the LISA model and identified the measures of preparedness for the responsive and accountable municipal government. The sample size was 149 individuals selected from three wards (ward 8 in urban, ward 27 is in semi-urban and ward 24 in the rural/periphery area) of PMC where the sample was collected at the 5% level of significance and 8% margin of error. The findings of the study suggested that the assessment of the expectation is the first step and government preparedness should be according to the public service delivery mechanisms so as to strengthen municipal governance in the municipality. The LISA model in municipalities is the baseline for strengthening the municipal governance. The study has been a useful assessment for the capacity development and technical backstopping at the one hand the public expectations at the other.

Using a Public Value Management theory to identify features of citizen-centric e-governance in Namibia

Background: The utilisation of e-government by citizens in Africa remains limited due to resource constraints and various socioeconomic challenges. Nevertheless, Namibia, for example, has shown a strong interest in adopting and implementing e-government, as evidenced by the periodic release of policy frameworks encouraging this use.Objectives: The aim of this research was to comprehend the expectations of Namibian citizens regarding e-government. Specifically, the study focused on identifying the key components of a citizen-centric e-government framework. A citizen-centered e-government can generate value for citizens according to Public Value Management.Method: A mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative) was used to gather data. Namibian government officials were engaged through interviews while a questionnaire survey was used to collect data from citizens. Exactly 196 respondents took part in the study.Results: The findings show that citizen-centric e-government could be attained by using information and communication technologies (ICTs) in meeting socially desirable outcomes, enhancing the efficiency of public organisations and the delivery of public services.Conclusion: Governments need to embrace citizen-centric e-government and avail a supportive infrastructure to improve adoption. Citizens need to see the opportunity of deriving value from e-government use for early adoption.Contribution: This study extends the public value theory to e-government. The study found minor differences or additions in terms of what participants value in this context. For instance, participants in this study value a complete e-service for e-government, efficiency that saves time and money, openness that promotes data government, and a need for funding for such projects.

Proceed with caution: US local governments and the American Rescue Plan

ABSTRACT Will a legacy of fiscal stress limit local governments’ willingness to make equity-focused investments even in the context of the relative surplus that American Rescue Plan funds provide for local governments in the US after COVID-19? Focus groups with local officials show the desire to address basic infrastructure investments (water and sewer) is primary, and concerns over recurring expenditure responsibilities, administrative burden and rising citizen expectations cause them to proceed with caution. However, the flexibility and size of ARPA funds make more progressive investments possible.

Current issues of legal support for food security in the context of agroecocide

The article is devoted to the study of topical issues of legal support for food security under martial law and agroecocide in Ukraine. The author emphasises that ensuring food security is one of the main tasks of every civilised state and the international community in the modern world. For Ukraine, which is currently in extremely difficult conditions of martial law, the issues of food supply and overcoming the negative consequences of disruption of agricultural production and agro­logistics processes are of particular importance. Waging a full-scale war on the territory of Ukraine creates threats in the area of food supply both for the population of our country and other countries which are import-dependent on Ukrainian agricultural products.
 The article examines the current state of legal support for food security, analyses novelties and identifies the problems of legislative regulation of relations in this area. The author's own definition of the concept of «agroecocide» is formulated. The author emphasises that currently there is no effective legal mechanism for ensuring food security and liability for agroecocide in Ukraine.
 The author comes to the conclusion that the problem of forming a holistic mechanism for legal support of food security in Ukraine, as well as criminalisation of agroecocide both at the level of national legislation and at the international legal level, is extremely relevant today. This legal mechanism should be aimed at solving specific tasks that meet the current interests and expectations of citizens, territorial communities, Ukrainian society and the State, in particular in the context of martial law and agroecocide, and also contribute to further improvement of the current legislation of Ukraine, scientific and economic development, and social progress, which are impossible without ensuring food security of the State and sustainable development of the agricultural sector.

Citizens driving the transition to sustainable urban food systems

Reaching a sustainable future in which cities characteristics meet all needs and expectations of citizens is an ambitious challenge at a global level. The present study aimed to identify appropriate ways to transform cities into “greener-cities” using a citizen science approach. In a three phases-project, co-design dynamics were conducted with different citizens' groups: consumers, chefs, producers/suppliers, and experts in different scientific disciplines. First, four focus groups were carried out for diagnosing the food system of the city (Donostia-San Sebastián) and identify potential solutions. Then, two workshops with mixed participants from different stakeholders' groups were carried out to co-design suitable initiatives previously identified in the first phase. Finally, the co-designed initiative was presented and tested: an immersive experience where participants could taste a local and seasonal dish presented by a Chef in a 360° video room with projections of an organic farm. Results showed that innovative educational activities or programs, such as the developed “Gastronomic Journey”, could be used to engage citizens and move forward to a greener city. The experience was considered as an opportunity to discover the city's flavor and culture, and to bring awareness to citizens about challenges of the food system through the chef's speech.