Government as a Platform? Constitutive Elements of Public Service Platforms

Digital platforms, by their design, allow the coordination of multiple entities to achieve a common goal. Motivated by the success of platforms in the private sector, they increasingly receive attention in the public sector. However, different understandings of the platform concept prevail. To guide the development and further research a coherent understanding is required. To address this gap, we identify the constitutive elements of platforms in the public sector. Moreover, their potential to coordinate partially autonomous entities as typical for federal organized states is highlighted. This study contributes through a uniform understanding of public service platforms. Despite constitutive elements, the proposed framework for platforms in the public sector may guide future analysis. The analysis framework is applied to platforms of federal states in the European Union.