Law and Co-production: The Importance of Citizenship Values
Palgrave Handbook of Co-Production, Forthcoming
Posted: 22 Nov 2019
Date Written: November 12, 2019
Abstract
Despite numerous attempts to define the core traits of co-production, it remains an heterogeneous concept. Building upon the existing literature, we engage in legal reasoning to identify the co-producer, especially in those cases where she does not directly benefit from the service being co-produced. Introducing and relying on the concept of proximity, we argue that co-production should be centered in an administrative citizenship, which associates the residency within a community with a set of rights and duties towards the public administration. Among those obligations, participation in co-production is a pathway toward active citizenship. We justify why co-production can be non-voluntary, or compelled by law to realize public interests. Yet we caution that co-production as a management scheme requires flexibility, and embedding it too strictly within a legal framework can diminish its effectiveness.
Keywords: co-production, law, common law, civil law, public administration, public service delivery
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation