de Langen, Maaike; Govers, Emily; van Zutphen, Reinier --- "Effectiveness and independence of the ombudsman’s own-motion investigations: a practitioner’s perspective from the Netherlands" [2018] ELECD 1074; in Hertogh, Marc; Kirkham, Richard (eds), "Research Handbook on the Ombudsman" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 373

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Ombudsman

Editor(s): Hertogh, Marc; Kirkham, Richard

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781786431240

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: Effectiveness and independence of the ombudsman’s own-motion investigations: a practitioner’s perspective from the Netherlands

Author(s): de Langen, Maaike; Govers, Emily; van Zutphen, Reinier

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

In addition to handling complaints, public sector ombudsman institutions typically have the power to conduct own initiative or own motion investigations. With the wide range of possible topics, the freedom to choose methods and approaches and the varying political settings in which these investigations take place, ombudsman search for the most effective way to use this power. Since there is no straightforward recipe for effectiveness, this chapter aims to capture practitioner experiences in the Netherlands, in order to come to a better understanding of how to be effective. It describes what investigations have come to look like over the past decade, using examples from two recent cases. The chapter also considers effectiveness from a more theoretical standpoint and discusses problems of causality, attribution and the difficulty of evaluation. It then looks at the effectiveness of own motion investigations more broadly and distinguishes direct and indirect effects. Finally it highlights other strategic considerations for the ombudsman, possible tensions between effectiveness and (perceived) independence of the institute and the ombudsman as a way of organizing mistrust, using Rosanvallon’s notion of counterdemocracy.