The future course of modern government - an IPAA policy paper

• Martin Stewart-Weeks
• The Institute of Public Administration Australia

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29 March 2011Governments and communities around the world face a range of risks and opportunities of unprecedented scale and complexity, the solutions to which need to be qualitatively different from those we have attempted in the past.

In Australia, this combination of complexity, scale and unpredictability is testing many of the current models and methods of government and the business processes and systems on which they rely. Without considerable reform and renewal, they will be increasingly unable to deliver the mix of better policy, improved services and new levels of engagement and participation that are the hallmarks of good government in a more open and connected world.

This IPAA policy paper addresses some fundamental questions about the issues and challenges facing governments in Australia and puts forward some principles and recommendations to guide their response.

The paper recognizes that, while there is some fundamental re-thinking about public sector performance implied in some of the changes it deals with, those changes themselves form part of longer-term developments which build upon the past rather than necessarily replace existing systems and proven practices. Some of these systems and practices will disappear over time, but there are certain underlying issues of public administration that are perennial challenges which any new public governance and management frameworks have to accommodate. These include the need to balance complex and often contested notions of the public good, the ability to adjudicate between different and sometimes clashing interests and values and the need always to ensure systems of public management that are open, equitable, fair and transparent. These sometimes uncomfortable tensions are reinforced in the Ahead of the Game report (Blueprint for the Reform of Australian Government Administration, March 2010) which calls out the critical stewardship function of public sector leadership. That includes, however, includes building a culture of innovation and integrity in policy advice (p5) and a culture of collaboration (p45).

The paper tries to capture the sense that something important and potentially very exciting is happening right now to our systems of public management, without eroding the legitimacy of the larger frames of theory and good practice to which they represent an important and valuable contribution.

The paper includes some discussion of the convergence between reforms under first the eGovernment and, more recently, the Government 2.0 banners and larger programs of public sector reform.

Some of the necessary changes will confront politicians and bureaucrats with uncomfortable implications for a new culture of government, infusing enduring values of public service with new patterns of power, control and accountability.

At the same time, they herald transitions with considerable opportunity for a more robust model of participation for better services, better and more effective policy and a capacity to repair the bonds of trust between citizens and governments.