A shift in paradigm? Collaborative public administration in the context of national digitalization strategies

Despite claims of a paradigmatic shift toward the increased role networks and partnerships as form governance—driven enabled by digital technologies—the relation “Networked Governance” with pre-existing paradigms “Traditional Weberian Public Administration” “New Management” remains relatively unexplored. This research aims at collecting systematic evidence on dominant in digitalization reforms Europe comparing doctrines employed initial most recent strategies across eight European countries: Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom. We challenge claim that Networked Governance is emerging paradigm context public sector. findings confirm earlier studies indicating information communication technologies tend to reinforce some traditional features administration recentralization power. Furthermore, we find continued importance key era.