Papers, My Friend, Are Blowing In The Wind: Towards A Paperless Administration

We are witnessing in Portugal an intense movement of dematerialization of files and administrative procedures. Of files, because Public Administration has been moving towards the promotion and effective implementation of documentary registers and their availability in electronic support to the detriment of the usual registration on physical paper support. Of procedures, since the procedural electronic process has been privileged in relation to the face-to-face contact during the office hours previously established by the services. We have thus passed from a model based on the ancient bureaucratic requirements to a Public Administration able to adapt to the new technological realities and the challenges of e-government. Today, the contact between the citizen and the Public Administration is, as often referred, "at the distance of a click", without any time constraints or imposition of unnecessary bureaucratic requirements. Therefore, we have today a Public Administration that tends to be more effective and more efficient, that, as a tendency, does not require more than it needs, being the tributary of a model of "intermittent administration". With this article, we intend to highlight some characteristics of 21st century public administration: a Public Administration that is intended to be closer to the citizen.