Digitization, fast and slow : comparing the creation of digital public services in Denmark, France and Germany

Abstract

This thesis deals with the digitization of public services. It seeks to explain why some countries appear to digitize their public service offer at greater speed and with more ease than others, despite similar backgrounds in terms of wealth, IT infrastructure and administrative capacity. For this, the cases of Denmark, France and Germany are compared with respect to their implementation of encompassing, national systems for the provision of citizen-friendly public services online. The time frame under observation roughly covers the years 2000 until the late 2010s. Expert interviews and governmental documents form the basis for the analysis. The dominant administrative culture as well as the politicoadministrative structure that governs responsibility for administrative service provision emerged as the principal forces to explain the speed and success of states’ digitization efforts. A bureaucratic cultural legacy slows down the drive to digitize public services. A decentralized and incoherently organized administrative structure renders digitization more difficult, time-intensive and costly and leads to a disjointed service offer.