Citizens, technology and the NPM movement

In the modernization of the state, NPM ideas are presumed to offer governments certainty in the face of major unknowns. The reliance of NPM on information technologies is presented by governments as underlining this potential for certainty. However, this presumption of certainty is elusive in practice. Government pursuit of NPM transformational policies aims to make efficiency savings and cost reductions, but this may create new uncertainties for citizens, particularly because of the unintended consequences of the implementation of new forms of technology.The findings of this paper should alert citizens to the dangers of government transformation programmes which rely on IT. These may not operate as intended and foster a surveillance society which may become irreversible. For policy-makers, there is an urgent need to carefully evaluate policy proposals. There is a temptation to pursue information technology as the way more is delivered for less. But this ignores serial IT project failures and reveals a lack of awareness of the implications of sleep-walking into a surveillance society. Also, in devising transformation programmes for public services, it is important that policies do not lose sight of the entitlements and rights of citizens. The policy option of treating citizens as customers fails to comprehend what citizenship means.