MENA and public consultations

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

Agenda - A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, 2000

Ihere is a growing expectation among interest groups of all kinds that they will be consulted at relevant stages of public policy development. It is now X an accepted fact of Australian political life that organisations will consult their stakeholders at crucial stages in their key decision-making processes. There has also been a trend towards the institutionalisation of such arrangements. This trend has not been peculiar to Australia. When governments consider new forms of regulation, delegated legislation or public rule making, sophisticated consultative arrangements have become a dominant feature of the process. In this respect Australia has followed overseas trends. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has noted that 'a strong trend towards renewal and expansion of public consultation in regulatory development' is under way in its member countries. The OECD has expressed strong approval of this trend and has championed it with the adoption and wide publication of a set of six propositions extolling the benefits of public consultation:

This OECD Handbook on Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy-making is a practitioner’s guide designed for use by government officials in OECD Member and non-member countries. It offers a practical “road map” for building robust frameworks for informing, consulting and engaging citizens during policy-making. The Handbook recognises the great diversity of country contexts, objectives and measures in strengthening government-citizen relations. As a result, it offers no prescriptions or ready-made solutions. Rather, it seeks to clarify the key issues and decisions faced by government officials when designing and implementing measures to ensure access to information, opportunities for consultation and public participation in policy-making in their respective countries.

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.

Consulting interest groups is commonplace in the preparation of policies by democratic governments. It is often assumed that interest groups participate in consultations primarily for the purpose of influencing policy. This article goes beyond this simplified claim and empirically explores the role of consultations from the vantage point of interest groups. Drawing on the Swedish formalized referral process known as the “remiss procedure” the article show that interest groups do not only participate in consultations in order to effectively change the policy proposal under consideration, they also use the output of the process in other venues for policy influence, such as direct political contacts and opinion-making, and to establish themselves, or maintain their status as legitimate actors in the eyes of the government. In addition, the remiss procedure appear to be intertwined with the groups’ own “internal life,” promoting the development and anchorage of policy positions within the organizations. These insights are important for further understanding the promises as well as the perils of public consultation.

PLA notes, 2001

Участь громадськості у формуванні та реалізації державної політики, 2014

The article is about the problems of public participation in the formulation and implementation of national policy. The possible forms of public participation are concerned and the shortcomings of the Procedure for public consultation on the formulation and implementation of national policy are analyzed. In particular the dialectic of form and content of communication with the public is investigated. Public wants to be heard, so the degree of public participation and activity depends on the extent of government power to appreciate such position. So the guidelines for education and development of the activity of society worked out in some of the rules of the game to communicate with the public. Here we are talking about establishing institutional mechanisms for public participation. Government has to show the desire and expect public participation by itself. Therefore the public participation process is not independent, but it is a consequence of the authorities` attitude to the local problems and the public institution as a whole. The article also shows the basic postulates how to defer to public opinion in state decision-making. In addition, public factor is offered to design in implementing the state policy of each department of the local executive. In particular, it is recommended to have at least one expert in the each unit manning board of the local executive authority to pursue a course of "the promotion of civil society"; respective roles should be reflected in the provisions of subdivisions and job descriptions of the workers; the costs of organizing and holding the community involvement shall be estimated separately in the expenses budget for the maintenance. A specification of the deferring to public opinion mechanism in forming out and implementing public policy is also recommended to be expected from the lawmakers.

2024

The consultation is a gathering of people to produce new ideas after thinking and exchanging views. It can also be characterized as a learning experience, through which participants have the opportunity to know and co-shape new aspects of their collective reality. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the usefulness of consultation and the possibility of using it for the elaboration of operational planning in public organisations. From the analysis regarding the experience during an innovative workshop and the evaluation of a relevant training program the work contributes to the utilization of consultation to strengthen democratic dialogue and the possibility of using it as a tool for the utilization of collective intelligence, i.e. the experience, knowledge, creativity and abilities of the members of an organization. The use of consultation facilitates realistic strategic and operational planning and enhances effective management for the development of the organisation. Keywords: consultation, public organisations' planning, participatory planning, better governance 1. Introduction Consultation as a learning experience is two-dimensional, it is the means/tool for generating ideas and at the same time it is the result produced by it. To the extent that consultation is a learning experience, it is an extremely important tool for an adult education organisation (ERC) because democratic dialogue is strengthened with the aim of developing stakeholder engagement, enhancing the transparency, coherence and effectiveness of the organisation. In addition, as a process, consultation has learning outcomes and is an example for learners. Public consultation is the process of seeking citizens' input on issues that concern them, supported by open and collaborative governance initiatives and its main objectives are transparency and effectiveness in policy-making (https://el.wikipedia.org). In the Policy Report of the Innovative Workshop entitled "Innovations in Consultation. The participation of citizens in decision-making" (Komseli, 2011), the public consultation is mentioned "as a necessary element of a participatory democracy, which listens to and integrates the views and demands of citizens and social actors in the decision-making process". It is useful for "exploiting the collective intelligence (experience, knowledge and creativity) that exists in societies and facilitates the formulation of a realistic development strategy and the exercise of better governance (EETAA, 2020). In this regard, open deliberation for the submission of policy suggestions contributes to the development of transparency and the design of better policies, while simultaneously facilitates the dynamic relationship between interest groups and the state, thus elevating the relationship between citizens and the state. The concept of consultation is not consistent with the exclusion of participation or the expression of an opinion of one side and/or with the imposition of the point of view of one side that may be valid vis-à-vis the other parties to this formal discussion. The work aims to highlight the main points of the experience during the innovative workshop and what we have learnt from the experience of a training program entitled "The role and the importance of consultation in public administration".