BOVENS, Mark
From street-level to system-level bureaucracies : how information and communication technology, is transforming administrative discretion and consitutional control - Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, mar./apr.2002
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) is rapidly changing the structure of a number of large, executive public agencies. They used to be machne bureaucracies in which street-level officials exercised ample administrative discretion in dealing with individual clients. In some realms, the street-level bureaucrats have vanished. Instead of street-level bureaucracies, they have become system-level bureaucracies. System analysis and software designers are the key actors in these executive agencies. This article explores the implications of this transformation from the perspective of the constitutional state. Thanks to ICT, the implementation of the law has virtually been perfected. However, some new issues rise: what about the discretinary power of the system-level bureaucrats? How can we guarantee due process and fairness in difficult cases? The article ends with several institutional innovations that may help to embed these system-level bureaucracies in the constitutional state
From street-level to system-level bureaucracies : how information and communication technology, is transforming administrative discretion and consitutional control - Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishers, mar./apr.2002
The use of information and communication technology (ICT) is rapidly changing the structure of a number of large, executive public agencies. They used to be machne bureaucracies in which street-level officials exercised ample administrative discretion in dealing with individual clients. In some realms, the street-level bureaucrats have vanished. Instead of street-level bureaucracies, they have become system-level bureaucracies. System analysis and software designers are the key actors in these executive agencies. This article explores the implications of this transformation from the perspective of the constitutional state. Thanks to ICT, the implementation of the law has virtually been perfected. However, some new issues rise: what about the discretinary power of the system-level bureaucrats? How can we guarantee due process and fairness in difficult cases? The article ends with several institutional innovations that may help to embed these system-level bureaucracies in the constitutional state
