NPM, Budget Transparency and Census Information

Abstract

New Public Management (NPM) reforms implemented in the Western-European context during the last two decades have coincided with the digitalization of public information. Digitalization made public information reusable and thus a potential resource for the information economy. At the same time, market-based steering mechanisms, such as budget transparency (accrual charging), have created a system that charges a high price for public information. Due to the NPM and performance management, public information has become a market commodity, now sold by the agencies holding it. This has also created barriers for exchanging data within the public administration, as since the mid-1990s, public bureaus have charged each other for the use of data, regardless of whether it is needed for executing legally assigned tasks.