How governance

became digital overnight

Christian LeysenADM

May 20, 2020

What will be lasting impact of coronavirus

on politics and business?

Topics

▪ Health vs. economy: an inconvenient

choice

▪ Crisis as accelerator of ongoing trends in

economy and society

▪ How politics work and (won’t) change

AXE | ACCESS TO X-CELLENT EXPERTISE

Logistic & Maritime Services

www.ahlers.com

650 staff members

(Western Europe, CIS, Asia)

Applied ICT

www.xylos.com

200 staff members

(Belgium)

Automation Solutions

www.agidens.com

500 staff members

(Belgium, The Netherlands, France,

Germany, Poland, Switzerland, USA)

but acceleration of ongoing trends in

▪ Digital knowledge

▪ E-commerce

▪ Working time-slots

A painful recovery

The Economist, March 26

Impact on the city of tomorrow

How does a Parliament work?

▪ Complex structure & no clear mandate by

electorate

▪ Democracy: more emotion- than solution focused

▪ Media attention is conflict- & ‘competition’ oriented

▪ Tremendous financial resources involved,

influential vested powers & no ‘zero based

budgeting’

Working methods Federal Parliament

▪ Tradition prevails

▪ … and digital meetings are considered

temporary exceptions

▪ Full video-streaming, but still traditional

publishing : www.dekamer.be

▪ Commissions with 17 members, but

avalanche of ‘amendments’ & oral

questions for government members

Ideological challenge Covid-19 crisis

Claude Malhuret, épidémiologiste - Sénat (France) - May 3, 2020

How to improve Public Governance

▪ Be inspired by best foreign best practices

▪ Challenge existing traditions & the existing

competitive election dilemma/climate

▪ Have ‘artificial intelligence’ and automatic

‘speech to text translation’ increase

efficiency in law-making

▪ Boost citizen involvement & promote

governance models (G1000,

Toekomstverbond ‘Oosterweel’)

1949 1960’s 1984

SWOT digital meetings

▪ Less transportation <> No breaks

▪ More discipline <> No informal side-talks

▪ Home working <> No home distanciation

▪ More contact time <> Digital bubbles

▪ Less travel hassles <> More back pain