Transforming the Public Sector: Impact of the Citizen’s Role

‘Citizen’, ‘consumer’, ‘user’, ‘administered’ or ‘partner’? What is your role, what are your expectations in your relationships with public organisations?
Worldwide, over the past decades, public organisations have re-defined the citizen using such varied vocabulary as ‘consumer’, ‘citizen-partner’, ‘user’ or ‘administered’. While these concepts have been at the centre of numerous debates they have rarely been analysed. What does it mean to be a ‘consumer’, what does it mean to be a ‘user’ or a ‘partner’? Are these things different? What do they entail? What are their impacts on you and on the management of public organisations? In this book, Jean Patrick Villeneuve details the international transformation of the role of citizens and analyse the impact of these changes for citizens, organisations and the relationships that unites/divides them. Does it matter that you are treated as a ‘citizen’ or a ‘consumer’? Does that impact your satisfaction, your trust in these institutions? Do you know what role you want to play? These questions and the debate they have launched are central to the reflections on the transformation not only of the citizen, but of the shape and structure of the public sector as a whole.