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Scientific Article details

Title Temporal governance and accountability costs of Beijing's digital citizen request system
ID_Doc 44783
Authors Habich-Sobiegalla, S; Zheng, H; Pluemmer, F
Title Temporal governance and accountability costs of Beijing's digital citizen request system
Year 2024
Published
DOI 10.1111/rego.12612
Abstract Prior literature highlights democracies' struggle to cope with today's rapid socio-economic changes, contrasting with more adept responses in authoritarian systems. This study makes a first attempt to explain the perceived speediness in an authoritarian setting. By focusing on Beijing's digital service request system, Jiesu Jiban, we argue that in creating request categories, standardizing cadres' reactions to requests, and designing decision pathways, Jiesu Jiban is not only an instrument to deal with increasing complexity and acceleration of socio-economic development, but the system itself also creates acceleration. It does so by categorizing, specifying, and standardizing service requests and response procedures and by channeling these through a digital infrastructure. We show that the datafication of governing citizens' request increases pressure for frontline administrators co-producing a system of responsibility without accountability for the central government.
Author Keywords Beijing; datafication; smart city; temporal governance; urban governance; urban service delivery
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:001269862000001
WoS Category Law; Political Science; Public Administration
Research Area Government & Law; Public Administration
PDF https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12612
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