Conditional Citizenship? Electronic Networks and the New Conditionality in Public Policy

Governments throughout the world are increasingly making use of new forms of ‘conditional’ public and social policies. While some policies have always been conditional, for example through means‐testing, these new policies are notable for making a benefit or service in one policy domain conditional on a situation or behavior in another policy domain. In addition to political rationalities and realities, this article argues that any understanding of the rise of such policies must take account of electronic information networks. Such networks not only enable such policies to be implemented, they have also stimulated networked ways of thinking among policy makers. This argument is illustrated by reference to the electronic Australian Childhood Immunisation Register and the conditional Maternity Immunisation Allowance. The article concludes by examining how this combination of electronic technologies, political ideas and political realities is reconfiguring contemporary social citizenship, making it more conditional, segmented, individualized and unequal.