Civil servant’s responsivity to community-based initiatives—how enabling factors predominated the disabling

In today's public service provision, the collaboration between governments and citizens through community-based initiatives (CBIs) is increasingly common. When communities increasingly initiate public matters themselves, they expect that their efforts are taken seriously, and that the government is responsive to their initiatives. While scholars as well as practitioners increasingly promote a responsive government, little is known about the actual responsiveness of civil servants and factors influencing their responsiveness. Drawing on the existing literature, we identify five categories of enablers and barriers for responsive civil servants. We qualitatively explore these influential factors in a CBI in the Netherlands, using a single case study design. Based on document analysis, fifteen in-depth interviews with citizens and civil servants, archival data and observations, we identify both the occurrence of enabling and disabling factors explaining the responsive behaviour civil servants display in practice. In the studied CBI, observed enablers predominated the institutional barriers posed by the work environment, enabling civil servants to be responsive towards citizens' needs and demands. Nevertheless, this study revealed that despite the responsiveness observed within this specific CBI, the political and work environment of civil servants is not yet equipped for this type of equal cooperation and therefore can hinder responsiveness.