Trust and ICT: New challenges for public administration

Trust and trust-building are key themes of public administration, involving trust in the networks of administration, citizens' trust in public authorities and the trustworthiness of the latter. This chapter explores the meaning of trust, thereby focusing on relations between citizens and the state, with a particular focus on information flows and the use of new digital tools (such as web 2.0), in a climate of public scepticism about government. People exchange their personal details for public services, and the state gives information to citizens as part of accountability. Also, ICT developments intensify personal data processing, data matching, and data sharing between different administrative domains. This raises questions of surveillance, privacy protection and public access to information. As some examples in this chapter will show, digital tools may also facilitate service delivery, democracy and the provision of information as tools for accountability and transparency. However, it is questionable whether ICT itself provides trustworthy and sufficient instruments for achieving administrative objectives as well as public benefits and privacy protection.

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