Responsive Citizens or a Responsive State? Skill Expectations as Barriers to Access Digital Public Services

The rise of digital government has introduced the demand for new skills that have become necessary for citizens to independently and meaningfully engage with public services. However, rather than ensuring accessibility regardless of skill levels, governments are shifting the burden onto individuals to actively address their own skill deficits in order to exercise fundamental rights, such as applying for welfare benefits. Drawing on qualitative interviews with Dutch professionals in the field, this research uses abductive reasoning to build the conceptual framework of the ‘responsive citizen.’ This concept reflects the expectation that citizens respond to skill deficits and proactively meet institutional skill demands to access public services. It is developed in conversation with the notion of the ‘responsive state,’ which places responsibility for inclusive service delivery on the public administration. By contrasting these two perspectives, the article contributes to public administration scholarship by critically analyzing shifting responsibilities in citizen-state relations.