El Índice de Cobertura de Servicios (ICS). Un instrumento para la evaluación de los Servicios Públicos

The comprehensive growth experienced by the public services in Spain in the last thirty-eight years, parallel to the structuring of public administrations, to the process of decentralization of powers and to the development of the welfare State; It has become apparent the importance of its coverage not only for public administrations, as managers, but for citizens as co-owners of such services. Under support theoretical that provide the budgets of the paradigm of the New Public Service, put in value the notion of citizenship, as well as the rights inherent thereto, by placing the citizen at the centre of public debate. To achieve these objectives, administrations must put in place, mechanisms that allow them to know the expectations and satisfaction of citizens with the services provided. Do this and taking into account the theoretical and empirical background in this area, has been designed a theoretical proposal, the rate of coverage of services (ICS), that allows to analyze in a comparative way, through the establishment of thresholds for coverage, the level of coverage of the public services at the municipal level.