The contribution of e-government to the "new conditionality" in social policy

Governments are increasingly introducing new conditions for the receipt of social benefits and services. Such conditions represent a discontinuity from previous conditional policies. This "new conditionality" is notable in its linking of two previously separate social policy domains. Workfare - that is, the linking of income support to employment activity - is the perhaps the first and exemplary instance of the new conditionality. Receipt of cash benefits are also being linked to school attendance and absence of bad parenting, public housing is linked to appropriate social behaviour, and access to health services conditional on non-violent behaviour. Drawing on empirical studies of e-government projects, this paper examines the rise of the new conditionality in social policy and the contribution of e-government in enabling and enhancing such an approach. The paper observes the neo-liberal and neo-paternalism political rationalities that have given rise to such policies. Neoliberal rationalities, which understand individual behaviour as responding to incentives and disincentives, see new conditionality as a way to induce behavioural change through financial incentives. Neo-paternalism, which seeks to regulate and monitor "failed" citizens, uses new conditionality as a means to induce what is regarded as appropriate behaviour. The paper argues that a consideration of this policy dynamic is not complete without recognising the contribution of networked information and communication technologies. Such technologies enable policy administrators to make the necessary data transfer needed for the implementation of such policies. The paper examines the way in which the new conditionality in social policy reconstitutes social problems, the administration of social policy and the relationship between citizens and the state. In particular, it is argued that such policies individualise social policy and social problems, regularly misunderstand the nature of social problems, and often undermine other public policy objectives