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How-To Bureaucracy: Administrative Literacy of Citizens

Citizenship
Public Administration
Survey Research
Matthias Döring
Universität Potsdam
Matthias Döring
Universität Potsdam

Abstract

Interactions with public administration impose considerable administrative burden on citizens. However, they may differ quite significantly with regard to their available resources to cope with such burden. The citizen’s competences necessary for successful interactions with public administration, however, remain widely neglected. Research from other fields such as data literacy or health literacy suggests that those concepts influence a variety of outcomes for both, the individual and society. Such competences may change behaviour and perception when interacting with public administrations, pointing out its potential as an important antecedent of satisfaction, compliance and other outcomes. Citizen with high administrative literacy have a better understanding of procedures, structures and rules, increasing their comprehension on how to deal with public administrations. Thus, they manage to deal with the administrative burden more easily. The present study develops a scale for measuring administrative literacy using data from a citizen survey. Results indicate that administrative literacy serves as a stand-alone concept independent of education that influences the satisfaction with public service encounters.