Creating Public Value: The Ombudsman’s Office as a Mediator Between Citizens and the State

The starting point is the assumption that when citizens turn to the Ombudsman Board, the relationship between the citizen and the state is already fragile. We see ombudsman institutions as intermediaries between citizens and the state, in particular its administration and its law. The project therefore focuses on the Ombudsman Board's contribution to creating public value through its work, which also aims to restore trust in the public administration and the legitimacy of the rule of law. Public value, a multidimensional concept, can be understood as "value created by the public sector" with regard to the fulfilment of individual and collective needs.

Due to the complexity of the concept, existing research often remains at the conceptual level and it is largely unclear how public value can best be captured methodologically and empirically. Using an innovative multidimensional design, both institutional and citizen perspectives are analysed. This makes an important contribution to the underdeveloped operationalisation and lack of empirical studies on public value. This study contributes to current debates through empirical, ethnographic data and a sociological perspective on the work of an established ombudsman institution.