Articles from cBrain

Bringing back trust in democracy
Digital Bureaucracy. Regaining trust in democracy through THE next generation of strong, transparent, and efficient government institutions

By Per Tejs Knudsen, February 2020

Democracy is the foundation of our society. It is therefore alarming to realize how democracy is under pressure across the world. In the Western world as well as in the developing countries, citizen dissatisfaction with democracy has been rising significantly over the last decades and reached an all-time high level. The global democracy recession is to a high degree led by the large and most populous democracies, while only citizens in a few small and high-income democracies, like Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, report higher trust in their government.

In the Western world, dissatisfaction with democracy is fueled by factors like economic frustration combined with political uncertainty and polarization, and in developing countries, the dawn of democracy is in many places hurt by political crises and corruption scandals. We believe that trust comes with delivery. To protect and develop democracy, government, therefore, has to deliver efficient, fair, and transparent services. But many government institutions seem to be at a crossroads, often being pressured both financially and politically, not being able to deliver and not being popularly supported. The strategy to fight the democracy crisis is to rethink and build a new generation of more efficient, transparent, and accountable institutions. Strong and stable government institutions are the society weapon to fight the recession and regain trust through highly efficient, transparent, and fair service delivery. This is possible through the use of digitization, and it is possible because all government organizations fundamentally work the same way.

Artificial intelligence in case management

By Per Tejs Knudsen, June 2019

Though the public sector is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, many projects are still of a research character. Many solutions are characterized by supporting simple, stand-alone work routines. The enthusiasm is present, but so far results have been modest.

Artificial intelligence offers a set of IT tools that provides great opportunities, especially in relation to the public sector. Already today there are great improvements to be made because a large part of administrative case management is rule-based. Coincidentally, the rule-based type of artificial intelligence is the most advanced. Artificial intelligence means “mimicking human cognition”. There are several kinds of human thinking, however.

Why government has to reclaim processes

By Per Tejs Knudsen, November 2019

Advanced analytics, blockchain, cloud-first, robotics, artificial intelligence, and open-source; across the world, government continues to apply new technology and new technology-based strategies to transform themselves, digitize, and automate citizens services. Yet, as new technologies have emerged and left, government has been struggling for decades and still does struggle to convert ambitious digitization plans into deliverables and measurable results.

Originated in Denmark and proven in a number of countries across EMEA, a new approach to digitization offers government fast track digitization and strong measurable effects. It is based on a formalized model for government production, referred to as “digital bureaucracy”, and supported by a new type of standard software and a highly structured implementation method.

Government production is based on bureaucracy. Yet, as the classic bureaucracy is now challenged by a shift from paper-based to digitized information, this shift also offers transparency, significant productivity gains, and more efficient service delivery. While technology continues to change, government means and duties remain. Technology trends and a limited understanding of how government works often hinder digitization. Further, this often results in technology-based business transformations where technology itself becomes the goal.