How And When Should Citizens Participate In Making Public Policy

Administration, 2013

2013

Popular sovereignty is a cornerstone of democracy. Traditionally, this has been exercised through regular free and fair elections. Yet is participation in elections every four or five years a sufficient degree of democratic popular control? Research shows that people have ‘become more and more disenchanted with the traditional institutions of representative government, detached from political parties, and disillusioned with old forms of civic engagement and participation’ (Yetano et al., 2010, p. 783). This is supported by a recent Eurobarometer poll, which reveals that only 32 per cent of EU citizens trust their government and only 33 per cent trust their parliament. In the case of Ireland these figures are 42 per cent and 39 per cent, respectively (European Commission, 2011). The European experience resonates with a global trend whereby the interests of citizens are increasingly seen to be disregarded by governments, particularly in relation to the ‘Great Recession’ of the early t...

The 3rd Annual International Conference on Public Administration and Development Alternatives 04 - 06 July 2018, Stellenbosch University, Saldahna Bay, South Africa, 2018

To assist the government in determining its mandate, citizens should be involved as they best know their needs. The significance of citizen engagement in the process of policy formulation is rooted in among others, the fact that public policy outputs and effects affect those to whom the policy is targeted at. This paper identifies areas of contribution of citizen involvement in public policy formulation. Literature illustrates that some governments do not engage citizens sufficiently in the process of public policy formulation. It remains relatively unclear as to why government evades engaging citizens in the formulation of public policy and conduct random and cursory consultations in order to enshroud the lack of consultation. The case of Botswana, illustrates that citizens made adequate efforts in the contribution to the formulation of the country's public policy. This study therefore, shows that citizens are an important stakeholder hence government engages them in a specific domain. This study also discusses selected cases of citizen engagement in Botswana. The study further acknowledges that the failure of policy implementation can be linked to failure on the part of civil servants where they do not follow proper procedure as recommended by the government. To this end, public policy successes require strong involvement of public officials to avoid any policy implementation failure.

Oxford Journal of Legal Studies

The author would like to thank the participants at various conferences where these ideas were developed, various colleagues, including The author would like to thank the participants at various conferences where these ideas were developed, various colleagues, including Professors Gordon Anthony and Amnon Reichman, and the editor and anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions. 1 There is of course a worldwide and international context for consultation. The United Nations Agenda 21 on sustainable development calls for "the broadest public participation" and urges "the active involvement of the non-governmental organizations and other groups" (see https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf). The European Commission is attempting to redress the disconnect with its institutions felt by many of its citizens through a variety of initiatives including a "Your voice in Europe" consultation webpage and its Citizens' Dialogue initiative (see http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/index_en.htm, and http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-dialogues/ (visited 14 th February 2017). See also D Friedrich, Democratic Participation and Civil Society in the European Union (Manchester: Manchester University Press 2011). Green paper followed by White Paper, with perhaps a little discussion with interested groups or lobbyists, has given way to a more elaborate processes seeking the views of a wider range of interests. 2 Despite the fact that, as Davidson and Elstub point out, the culture of democracy and nature of government structures in the UK have never been particularly suited to deliberation, 3 there have been a variety of experiments over the last quarter century. These have involved citizen juries, deliberative polls and participatory budgeting, sometimes with an information and communication technology (ICT) element. 4 However most consultations are more prosaic, with the online element restricted to a webpage containing a link to a .pdf document. The UK Government's website page for "Consultations" lists 698 consultations published in 2016 alone, out of a total of 3,642 since the decade began. 5 Devolution has intensified the emphasis on consultation. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 initially led the way through its s. 75 requirement that public authorities promote equality of opportunity, and consult widely about the effect of their policies on persons of different sex, religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation, and those with a disability or with dependents. The Scottish Ministerial Code commits the Scottish Government "to develop procedures which make possible a participative approach to the development, consideration and scrutiny of policy and legislation", and it has established a "Consultation Hub". 6 Participatory budgeting too has received a boost in Scotland with a commitment in 2016 to spend an extra half million pounds in this way. 7 In Wales there is not only a list of consultations online but the Council for Voluntary Action maintains a webpage detailing consultations from various 2

Policy Sciences, 2019

In the wake of the increasing use of deliberative citizen assemblies in the public sphere, this article studies how traditional policy actors receive a mini-public as 'newcomer' in political decision-making, despite its reliance on a fundamentally different vision of policy-making and that it substantially alters existing power distributions. Survey data collected before and after a typical mini-public case, the Citizen Climate Parliament, shows that most politicians and stakeholders welcome this 'newcomer' as long as it remains consultative. A typological discourse analysis of 28 semi-structured interviews with these politicians and stakeholders suggests that this attitude comes with four different views of mini-publics' place in political decision-making: an elitist-, expert-, (re)connection-and reinvention view. Given that an important correlate of these views was the extent to which actors agreed with the recommendations of the mini-public, it shows that their views were driven both by actors' interests in the outcome on a micro-level and by their general ideas about political decision-making on a macro-level. The findings illustrate that mini-publics may encounter opposition from both political actors and stakeholders once they aim to take a place in political decision-making that goes beyond occasional and consultative uses. At the same time, these results show that the use of mini-publics does not leave traditional representative institutions unaffected as it prompts them to think about the place that citizen deliberation should take in the political system.

Journal of Decision Systems, 2016

Big Data promises benefits for society as well as business. Do policy makers know how best to use this scale of data driven decisionmaking in an effective way for citizens? Citizen participation is portrayed in literature as a key component in policy decisionmaking. Yet, this decision-making process to date is often driven by other stakeholders such as scientific experts, academic institutions, national and international governing bodies, to name but a few. Furthermore, there is scant literature on the best way to create policy for new technology, taking into consideration the voice of the citizen. The prevailing question, therefore, is what extent does citizen participation in decision-making make a difference to shaping policy for technology? Our paper explores an experimental method for citizens to make a difference to European policy decision-making on the future of technology and the impact on society. Employing a case study of Irish citizens as part of the CIMULACT (Citizen and Multi-Actor Consultation on Horizon 2020) project this paper reports a new methodology for gathering citizens' perspectives on future decisionmaking policies on technology. The findings reveal key advantages and disadvantages to this methodology. This paper makes a number of contributions to both the academic and practitioner communities. © 2016 informa uK limited, trading as taylor & francis Group KEYWORDS Word; citizen participation; responsible research and innovation; visions, technology assessment CONTACT ciara fitzgerald [email protected]

Administration

Policy & Politics, 2007

English The term ‘citizen governance’ (CG) is currently attracting attention in policy circles. Yet there is no universally agreed definition, and the term is used in different ways. This article identifies key tensions between citizen governors’ ‘representation’ and ‘steering’ roles, and presents a framework that attempts to make these tensions more explicit. Case study evidence suggests that the effectiveness of CG structures is contextual rather than universalistic, and that different sets of assumptions are often conflated in governance. We argue that if inclusivity in policy making is a genuine goal, these assumptions need to be made more explicit and accommodated in structures that work.

Deleted Journal, 2024

Citizen participation in policy decision-making is vital for ensuring transparency, accountability, and responsiveness in governance. This systematic literature review examines the relationship between citizen participation and policy legitimacy, exploring various factors influencing citizen involvement in decision-making processes. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between the level of citizen participation and the legitimacy of policies. Indicators such as public perception of fairness, support and acceptance, compliance with policy, trust in government institutions, perceived effectiveness of policies, transparency, and accountability contribute to policy legitimacy. Moreover, demographic, institutional, psychological, technological, and cultural factors play significant roles in shaping citizen participation. The findings underscore the importance of inclusive and effective citizen engagement in enhancing policy legitimacy, strengthening democracy, and fostering responsive governance.