Andries Hoogerwerf (1931-2024) started his working career as a journalist. He studied political science, obtained his PhD and worked at the Free University of Amsterdam (1955-1969, from 1968 on as a lector). He then became a professor of Political Science at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (1969-1975). Hoogerwerf achieved his greatest fame during his Twente period (1975-1993) as a professor of Policy Processes. Twente had the first full university programme in Public Administration in the Netherlands with him as one of the pioneers. In the last three decades of the twentieth century, Hoogerwerf and his colleagues from the University of Twente expanded this programme into a leading Public Administration faculty in the Netherlands, where many hundreds of young people are prepared for a career in public administration or as a researcher.

Andries Hoogerwerf, born in Delft on 11 March 1931, died at the age of 93 on 25 March 2024. In addition to the ‘In Memoriam’ by Bas Denters, Jacques Thomassen and Michiel Herweijer, this contribution contains a more detailed overview of his life and work, including the 17 PhDs students for whom he acted as supervisor. He will be missed by many, especially at a time when the values he promoted (liberty, equality, solidarity) have come under so much pressure nationally and internationally.

When governments use digital technologies, public values can come under pressure. This article presents an instrument for governments to identify actions aimed at safeguarding public values concerning digital governance through dialogue. In the current literature there is a discrepancy between abstract discussions about good digital governance and the practical safeguarding of public values. The Dutch Code of Good Public Digital Governance (CODIO in Dutch) offers a framework, but not a concrete approach for organisations. To fill this gap, we have developed the CODIO ‘From Principles to Actions’ (VPA in Dutch) instrument based on literature on public value considerations concerning digitalisation. Based on scenario-based design thinking (SBDT), the CODIO and ethical guidance, we developed and tested the CODIO VPA instrument in three iterations at two Dutch provinces and a Dutch municipality. With the instrument, consisting of preparation, a workshop and follow-up conversations, government organisations can enter into dialogue about public values and identify concrete actions to strengthen public values. This research therefore results in an administratively substantiated and practice-tested instrument that helps government organisations to ensure good digital governance.

This article reports on an exploratory study into the characteristics of administrative cultures in Dutch municipalities and provinces. The central questions were: which characteristics of administrative cultures are distinguished in practice and to what extent are there differences in this respect between types of government and between different officials in municipalities and provinces? Administrative cultures in Dutch municipalities and provinces appear to be distinguishable according to the extent to which they are people oriented and customised (community culture), debates and procedures (debate culture) or chaos and conflict (arena culture). Administrative culture can be described as a three-dimensional concept. This characterisation can help to describe the administrative cultures of municipalities and provinces more accurately, so that their functioning can be better understood. There appear to be significant differences between representatives, administrators and civil servants in terms of the extent to which people experience a particular administrative culture. The differences between members of the opposition and the coalition are particularly striking. The perceived administrative culture also appears to be a political fact: the distribution of political and administrative power determines the extent to which people experience the different dimensions of the administrative culture.

Policy choices are largely inspired by images of man: assumptions about the lives and behaviour of people to whom the policy applies. Despite their influence on policy, images of man often remain implicit and are often taken for granted. Although there has been increasing political and social attention to this theme in recent years, there is still little academic knowledge about the role of images of man in policy. This article aims to close this knowledge gap by researching and making visible images of man behind policy. Based on document analysis, interviews and focus group discussions with involved officials, this article focuses on the Dutch Lifelong Development policy and the Covid vaccination strategy. The research shows that the rational, responsible view of man and its counterpart, the vulnerable person, are a dominant underpinning of policy. This initially results in policy that informs and supports citizens and above all leaves them free to do so. But the policy uses a specific, normative interpretation of what the rational and responsible choice is; namely learning and developing and getting vaccinated. This specific interpretation carries the risk that other priorities, concerns and considerations of people not to develop or be vaccinated are at best not seen or served, and at worst are portrayed as irrational, irresponsible or even anti-social.

The Dutch Municipal Act states that municipal clerks must assist the council and the committees set up by the council in the performance of their duties. The clerk is the lynchpin of local democracy. Yet many clerks are modest. We regularly hear them humbly say that they ‘support’ the council. That can be more active and assertive, that is what our local democracy is worth, and municipal clerks are obliged to do so in their position. In this essay, the authors describe how local democracy benefits from – or simply consists of – the coming together of four systems: politics, administration, organisation and community and that the clerk is a crucial catalyst in this. This essay focuses on the role of municipal clerks. But anyone who wants to know how local democracy can work better, or wants to become better at it themselves, can learn from this. Both the players themselves (council members, civil servants, council members and residents) and the people who work on local democracy from outside (academics, advisors, activists, etc.).