Public administration in the open government age. Smart governance for a paradigm shift in public management

Abstract

Management of public administrations is in a process of transformation, as also occurs in other political dimensions, within a context of change in the technological base of our societies. This article offers a theoretical approach, as well as empirical evidence, regarding recent moves in contemporary public management derived from the adoption, use, and diffusion of social media technologies in public organizations. This article supports the idea of an emerging paradigm in public management denoted as ‘smart governance’, which is compared with previous paradigms on the basis of renewed principles including values derived from philosophy 2.0, open data and transparency, social media platforms, a focus on citizen participation and external knowledge in the decision-making process, and new collaboration dynamics among public employees and organizations (Criado, 2016; Noveck, 2015). This paradigm shift is empirically investigated through four case studies, two social media platforms for citizen crowdsourcing (Challenge.gov y SantanderCityBrain) and two social media platforms for open collaboration among public employees (GitHub y NovaGob). The conclusions of the study shed light on the most recent transformations in the technological dimension of public administration, and discusses to what extent they will impact on our way of understanding the future of the public sector.