The Question of Participation: Toward Authentic Public Participation in Public Administration (original) (raw)
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International Journal of Public Administration, 2014
Decision-makers and affected parties engaged in solving contemporary governmental problems are recognizing that traditional decision-making strategies are insufficient. A participatory democracy approach to public participation has been offered as a potential solution to these problems; however, a more sophisticated understanding of this approach is needed. This study defines a more substantive brand of public participation, identifies barriers to its implementation, and provides recommendations for implementation. Models of substantive participation should empower and educate all stakeholders, reeducate public administrators, and establish new administrative structures and processes. These objectives as well as a discussion of particular barriers to substantive participation are outlined.
Securing an Effective Voice for Citizens in Intergovernmental Administrative Decision Making
2009
Intergovernmental administrative arrangements, often obscured from public view, are responsible for public decisions and their consequences. After European Union citizens expressed dissatisfaction with the disconnected administrative decisionmaking process by rejecting the European Constitution, the European Commission called for a period of reflection to develop tools and processes in order to involve citizens in the decision-making process. This article examines collaborative efforts by the European Union to involve citizens in the shaping of national priorities. In-depth interviews were conducted with the heads of nonprofit organizations and staffers at nonprofits involved with organizing the European Citizens’ Consultations (ECC). All the organizations are directly involved with implementing the project, have ongoing contact with citizens, and are immersed in the community. This will highlights lessons learned from the ECCs as a model for involving citizens in the intergovernmental administrative decision-making process on the national level and for transcending obstacles to involving citizens by addressing the following research questions: How to involve citizens? When to involve citizens? And whom to involve? The findings underscore four lessons that can be applied in the national decision making process in the U.S. federal system. 1. Citizens do not need to be experts in order to participate. 2. Participation must be facilitated to be successful and representative. 3. Forums should include citizens only—and exclude politicians and other decision makers whom average people might find intimidating. 4. Citizens must be involved on a regular basis.
Explaining the Patterns of Public Participation in Agency Decision-Making
Why are some agencies more open to public input than others? Although many agree about the normative desirability of involving citizens in administrative processes, there is a significant variation across agencies in the extent of citizen involvement. This paper investigates the factors that drive public managers' decision to solicit greater citizen input. We argue that besides normative rationales, participation also serves instrumental considerations related to agency legitimacy and constituent support. We draw on a rich body of literature on public participation in the policy process to develop empirically testable hypotheses about the patterns of participation in administration. Using data about the practices of citizen involvement in setting the budget priorities at four state departments-environment, transportation, child protection, and corrections-we find that the characteristics of target groups are strong predictors of an agency's willingness to involve the public. Contrary to expectations, policy characteristics are less important in administrative decisions regarding public participation.
Deliberative civic engagement in public administration and policy
This article explores deliberative civic engagement in the context of public administration and policy. The field of public administration and policy is seeing a resurgence of interest in deliberative civic engagement among scholars, practitioners, politicians, civic reformers, and others. Deliberative processes have been used to address a range of issues: school redistricting and closings, land use, and the construction of highways, shopping malls, and other projects. Additional topics include race and diversity issues, crime and policing, and involvement of parents in their children's education. Finally, participatory budgeting, which has been used with success in Porto Alegre, Brazil since 1989 and has been employed in over 1,500 cities around the world, has been one of the most promising forms of deliberative civic engagement. Finally, the article suggests what we must do to build a civic infrastructure to support deliberative civic engagement, including government, but also practitioners and scholars.
Designing Public Participation Processes
Formerly a public and nonprofi t manager, she now focuses her research and teaching on civic engagement, integrative leadership, and public and nonprofi t management. Through ethnographic research, she studies a diversity of approaches to public engagement across a wide range of policy and planning issues and their consequences for decision outcomes, implementation, and community capacity building.
Handbook on Theories of Governance, 2nd edition, 2022
Public participation in governance involves the direct or indirect involvement of stakeholders in decision-making about policies, plans or programs in which they have an interest. This chapter explores the theories illuminating key concerns, namely what constitutes legitimate and useful public participation; the relationships among diversity, representation, and inclusion; the appropriate influence of different kinds of knowledge; and how to align participation methods and contexts. We describe two areas needing additional theoretical development: what levels of participation are desirable and workable, and the threats and opportunities for participation posed by increasingly diffuse systems of governance.
Participation in the U.S. administrative process
Comparative Law and Regulation
The participatory process that lies at the heart of U.S. administrative law is hailed by some to be among the most comprehensive in the world. Agencies promulgate rules under elaborate procedures designed to place public participants as important collaborators and watchdogs at virtually every step in the agency's decision. Indeed, in this process, citizens are guaranteedby legislationimportant rights of participation, which include commenting, accessing information, and ultimately challenging agency rules in court. 1 In practice, however, the work of the U.S. agencies has become increasingly inaccessible to many of the individuals and groups that their rules affect. 2 Rulemaking records are often very large and can run into the hundreds of pages. 3 Comments submitted on agency proposals, standing alone, can include thousands of submissions, many of which are dozens of pages each. 4 The agency's own explanations, proposals, and rule text can be opaque and gratuitously complicated in ways that even experts cannot follow. 5 As Professors Farina, Newhart, and Blake observe, from the perspective of affected citizens, the agency's rule and accompanying analysis "is about as accessible as if the documents were written hieroglyphics." 6 The net result is an administrative 1