Post in I am a citizen not a consumer

Jul 22 20:11 UTC

Interesting responses from John & Steve - some days ago I put this in my
research blog -
http://greatemancipator.com/2008/07/15/bread-and-circuses/

Juvenal in the Satires referred to the political practice of populism as
the people abdicating their duties for 'bread and circuses', this
compares with the emphasis placed in traditional Roman society upon
'civis Romanus sum' or 'I am a Roman citizen', by which the privilege of
being a member of Roman society was balanced by the acceptance of rights
and duties.

What has this to do with e-government? Its back to the current practice
of describing citizens as customers! By talking about customer need,
satisfaction or whatever I would contend that we are in danger of
offering them 'bread and circuses', and forgetting to associate it with
the privilege of citizenship and all it entails, such as the duties.

This was captured in a Canadian document of 1996, 'A Strong Foundation -
Report of the Task Force on Public service, Values and Ethics' from a
group chaired by John C. Tait QC. Tait's task force picks up on the
tensions between treating citizens as user, customer or client and makes
a number of important points such as on page 36:
"In every public service transaction or activity, the true public
servant must be alive to issues of equity and fairness to a degree that
is rarely required of private sector managers."
Tait's report also identifies the conflict between New Public Management
(NPM) and public administration but importantly does not state that we
mustn't use the expressions but be actively aware of the tensions they
introduce. We can call the citizen a customer but ensure that both the
public servant and the citizen are aware of their respective duties and
obligations.

With government's concern over active citizenship I purport that it is
time to focus on the expectations of citizenship and that this can be
used to encourage feedback on services and assistance in improving or
developing them.