Serving the Public, But Not Public Servants?

Abstract

In 1980, Michael Lipsky argued that frontline government workers held “the keys to a dimension of citizenship” for people interacting involuntarily with public services. Since then, waves of reform have thrust nongovernment actors into that role by proxy. Under political and economic pressure to be lean, accountable, and efficient in providing public services, many governments now rely on external agents, contractors, markets, and artificial intelligence to deliver public policy outcomes. The emerging institutional landscape is a dynamic mix of government and nongovernment actors collecting and interpreting data and delivering services to citizen “clients” within a complex web of governance structures, legislation, performance measures, funding mechanisms, rules, processes, technology, norms, and philosophical standpoints. Who is serving the public in this environment, where the lines between public interest and private interest are blurred? Exploring trajectories of reform and the public servant, this chapter discusses the rise of the “nonpublic servant” as the frontline of government, the shifting boundaries of accountability and interaction between business, civil society and the state in prioritizing, designing and delivering public services, and the implications for citizens. Just who the “public servant” is in this landscape is open to debate.