Showing papers by "Damian Tambini published in 2000"

The civic networking movement: the internet as a new democratic public sphere?

Abstract: As the neo-liberal marketization of citizenship and the resulting processes of individualization proceed, debates on citizenship tend to flounder in outmoded ideological oppositions. By examining concrete cases and processes that accompany contemporary practices of citizenship, this volume brings analytical clarity to contemporary debates about citizenship. The state, the market and the forum are analysed as competing fields of citizenship practice, and it is their complex relationship which helps us to understand the role and function not only of the debate on citizenship, but of the institutions and practices of citizenship itself in the contemporary world.

The Ulysses Effect Targets in electronic service delivery

Abstract: The Labour government's reforms aim to provide more efficient public services that are more relevant to public needs and available 24 hours a day without a wait. A key tool in achieving these objectives is the electronic delivery of public services, using telephones, the internet and other electronic media to make government/public interaction more efficient. Central government has begun a radical process of modernisation by specifying electronic service delivery (ESD) targets for each department and installing a structure to monitor progress. This article outlines how targets can lock government into policy processes with unpredictable consequences, and argues that the methodological and measurement difficulties of target setting in this area can be both a strength and a weakness.