One-stop Shop
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A one-stop shop (OSS), in
public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...
, is a government office where multiple services are offered, allowing customers to access these services in a centralized location rather than in different places. The term originated in the United States in the late 1920s or early 1930s to describe a business model offering customers the convenience of having multiple needs met in one physical location, as with
department stores A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made ...
and big-box stores, which offer a wide variety of products. The phrase is frequently used as slang to describe everything from websites to television shows and
mobile apps A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
where people can find most of what they need, including information, in a single place.


Public administration

One-stop shops are an element of New Public Management with a focus on improving the delivery of government services to citizens. Drawing on observed successes in the private sector's model for delivering consumer-centric service to enhance customer satisfaction, government entities employ this model of one-stop shop to help give citizens the feeling that they are able to easily access necessary services. In turn, the ease with which citizens are able to comply with government regulations through sources like the one-stop shop encourages broader compliance with those regulations. Brazil's Poupatempo (''Savetime'') centers in
São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
were first established in 1997 and have since grown not only within the state of São Paulo but throughout the entire country. Serving as a model for other one-stop shops around the nation and around the world, Poupatempo and other similar operations drastically cut down on time and money spent by citizens to complete tasks like the renewal of
driver's licenses A driver's license, driving licence, or driving permit is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, car ...
. The success of places like Poupatempo encouraged the model's spread. Around the same time,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
opened the Centrelink agency using the one-stop model. In
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
, one-stop shops like
Service Canada Service Canada is the program operated by Employment and Social Development Canada to serve as a single-point of access for the Government of Canada's largest and most heavily used programs, such as the social insurance number, the Employment I ...
at the federal level took root and inspired similar operations at the provincial level, as with ServiceOntario and Services Québec. Localities in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
now often use one-stop shops for workforce development, offering job training, housing assistance, and other services at Jobcentres while providing an easy way to get government and council advice. In each case, customer service drove consolidation and streamlining of citizen services to allow governments at every level to better meet the needs of the population. In the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, municipalities like
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
,
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, and
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
pioneered 3-1-1 during the late 1990s and early 2000s as an early version of a virtual one-stop shop, giving citizens and visitors access to a wide variety of information from their telephone while also centralizing and simplifying the ability to report non-emergency
quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...
concerns. New York City's 3-1-1 service handles 30,000 calls per day with information on 6,000 government benefits and services available in 180 different languages, all from a single source. The use of virtual one-stop shops like 3-1-1 is a key tenet of
e-government E-government (known for electronic government) involves utilizing technology devices, such as computers and the Internet, for faster means of delivering public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offer ...
, which the
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) is part of the United Nations Secretariat and is responsible for the follow-up to major United Nations Summits and Conferences, as well as services to the United Nations Econ ...
has emphasized as a method for "effective, transparent, accountable, and democratic" governance with an eye on achieving
sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
. In many cases, one-stop shops enhance citizen access by making it easier for people to obtain similar or related services that may not be perfectly aligned in focus or in governmental approach, but may frequently be used together. For instance, in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, municipalities are responsible for delivering
welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...
benefits while the national government handles
pensions A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a "defined benefit plan", wher ...
and
unemployment benefits Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work d ...
. Rather than force unemployed persons to visit two different offices in different buildings operated by different government entities to secure the full range of their entitlements, the one-stop shop enables them to save time and effort. The concept is not without friction. In one-stop locations that combine services from different government levels, higher level government tiers can threaten lower tiers' ability to operate independently and make decisions separate from the higher entity with which they share space and information for the sake of citizen convenience. São Paulo's experience with Poupatempo was not uniformly positive. Although the service and its number of locations grew rapidly due to its popularity with citizens, a certain degradation in the social quality of some services has been noted. For instance, the administration of medical exams when obtaining or renewing a driver's license, which was one of the more cumbersome aspects of licensure before Poupatempo's consolidation, has shown decreasing levels of quality over time.
Stephen Goldsmith Stephen "Steve" Goldsmith (born December 12, 1946) is an Americans, American politician and writer who was the 46th List of mayors of Indianapolis, mayor of Indianapolis. He also served as the Mayor of New York City#Deputies, deputy mayor of Ne ...
, a former mayor of Indianapolis,
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
, has advocated for governments moving beyond one-stop shops with "no-stop shops." Rather than centralize services, a no-stop shop would instead centralize data about citizens, allowing governments to provide service proactively based upon what they would expect individual citizens and households to need. This model enhances e-government by diminishing or eliminating the need for citizens to seek government services, instead bringing those services to them when they are most likely to require specific things.


Bibliography

* Blackburn, G. "One-stop shopping for government services: Strengths and weaknesses of the service Tasmania experience." ''International Journal of Public Administration'' 39, no. 5 (2016): 359–369. * Fredriksson, A. "One Stop Shops for Public Services: Evidence from Citizen Service Centers in Brazil." ''Journal of Policy Analysis and Management'' 39, no. 4 (2020): 1133–1165. * Lagreid, P, and L. H. Rykkja. 2015. "Organizing for "wicked problems" - analyzing coordination arrangements in two policy areas." ''The International Journal of Public Sector Management'' 28 (6): 475–493. * Lambrou, M. A. "Advancing the one-stop shop e-government paradigm." In ''IEMC'03 Proceedings. Managing Technologically Driven Organizations: The Human Side of Innovation and Change'', pp. 489–493. IEEE, 2003. * Minas, R. (2014). One‐stop shops: Increasing employability and overcoming welfare state fragmentation?. ''International Journal of Social Welfare'', ''23'', S40–S53. * OECD (2020), ''One-Stop Shops for Citizens and Business'', OECD Best Practice Principles for Regulatory Policy, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b0b0924e-en. * Prado, M. M., and A. C. da Matta Chasin (2011). "How innovative was the Poupatempo experience in Brazil? Institutional bypass as a new form of institutional change." ''Brazilian Political Science Review'' 5 (1): 11–34. * Scholta, H., W. Mertens, M. Kowalkiewicz, and J. Becker. "From one-stop shop to no-stop shop: An e-government stage model." ''Government Information Quarterly'' 36, no. 1 (2019): 11–26.


See also

* Import-OSS (IOSS) * * * (MOSS)


References


External links


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