Citizens and Governments: Getting closer or further apart?

Abstract

Whether governments connect with their citizens and how they do so is, as it has been in the past, a prominent subject in the public governance debate across the group of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations. The 2011 Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) national conference on ‘Putting Citizens First: Engagement in Policy and Service Delivery for the 21st Century’ is a prominent example of taking a fresh look at a known subject. Answering the question of why there is such renewed interest requires consideration of several issues.