The Public and Decision-making Process: Who and Why Needs Citizen Participation?

2014 ◽  
pp. 63-80
Author(s):  
O. Bychkova
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Work Time ◽  
Alternative Mode ◽  
The Public ◽  
Time And Energy

The participation of the public in the decision-making and policy discussion is expected to allow the officials to re-valuate the proposed decisions, save money on their implementation and restore public trust in government. However, from the point of view of bureaucrats, direct participation is often unproductive: you are required to spend work time and energy on discussions with non-experts and have no means to predict the effectiveness and efficiency of these debates. The article considers theories and empirical studies that can explain a new fashion trend of openness and transparency in world’s public policy and problems with its implementation. The article also evaluates the applicability of republican tradition to modern policy-making and analyzes alternative mode of public involvement. Keywords : public policy, rule-making, open government, transparency, public participation.

Citizen Participation in Water Management

1999 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 125-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. House
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
General Public ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Local Area ◽  
Silent Majority ◽  
The Public ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Uk

If rivers are to be managed sustainably, and the potential to resolve conflicts of use realised, the general public must be more involved in their management. Participation in water management in England and Wales occurs at three levels: formal consultation; public involvement; or actual direct participation by the public. Formal consultations often leave the public in the role of the “objector” and ignore the “silent majority” focusing on the more vociferous minority of the population. Public involvement is less formal and can take a variety of forms. Although not allowing the public to be directly involved in the decision making processes, it provides the public with the opportunity to comment upon plans for river works or the re-development of a river location, or to indicate what they want from the rivers that flow through their own local area and which they use for recreation and amenity. True participation is where the public are actively involved in the decision making processes. Citizen participation at all three levels provides environmental education, however, personal experience promotes a greater environmental awareness and understanding by the public. This paper reflects upon approaches to citizen participation in the UK and provides examples of specific projects involving both formal organisations and the general public.

scholarly journals Through a Glass Darkly: The Role and Review of "National Security" Concepts in Canadian Law

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Forcese
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
National Security ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
Canadian Law ◽  
Real Importance ◽  
The Government

The expression "national security" or its close similes lacks a precise meaning, even in the public policy literature. Nevertheless, the concept appears in over 30 federal statutes. In most instances, the term is undefined, an important oversight in light of the significant powers these statutes accord the government. Under these circumstances, how courts review government invocations of "national security" is of real importance. With some exceptions, courts applying s. 7 of the Charter and standard administrative law doctrines have accorded substantial deference to government national security determinations. When largely deferential substantive review of the ambiguous concept of national security is coupled with the ex parti and in camera context in which these cases are often heard, the net effect is to leave government with a freer hand in national security matters than in other domains of administrative decision making. Several possible responses to this problem are proposed.

Prison Crowding and the Evolution of Public Policy

1985 ◽  
Vol 478 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOAN MULLEN
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Budget Constraints ◽  
The Public ◽  
Minimum Standards ◽  
Eighth Amendment ◽  
The Future ◽  
American Prison

While crowding has been a persistent feature of the American prison since its invention in the nineteenth century, the last decade of crisis has brought more outspoken media investigations of prison conditions, higher levels of political and managerial turmoil, and a judiciary increasingly willing to bring the conditions of confinement under the scope of Eighth Amendment review. With the added incentive of severe budget constraints, liberals and conservatives alike now question whether this is any way to do business. Although crowding cannot be defined by quantitative measures alone, many institutions have far exceeded their limits of density according to minimum standards promulgated by the corrections profession. Some fall far below any reasonable standard of human decency. The results are costly, dangerous, and offensive to the public interest. Breaking the cycle of recurrent crisis requires considered efforts to address the decentralized, discretionary nature of sentence decision making and to link sentencing policies to the resources available to the corrections function. The demand to match policy with resources is simply a call for more rational policymaking. To ask for less is to allow the future of corrections to resemble its troubled past.

Public Involvement in the Design of Public Projects

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-79
Author(s):  
Emad S. Mushtaha ◽  
Omar Hassan Omar ◽  
Dua S. Barakat ◽  
Hessa Al-Jarwan ◽  
Dima Abdulrahman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Public Project ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Building Program

The involvement of the public in the decision-making process is essential, especially in the early stages of a design process. This study aims to achieve the development of an architectural program for a memorial public project, using the outcomes of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) based on public opinion. It employs a novel approach that sharply focuses on public involvement in the design process, using a quantitative methodology for the development of a suitable building program and selecting a memorial form that meets the public's needs in a practical way. The study drew on data from various memorial projects to identify possible spaces and their selection criteria. A written questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 105 members of the public, to narrow down the number of spaces according to public response. Then, a hearing (spoken) questionnaire was conducted on a sample of 20 to produce the program for development by generating the most strongly preferred form of memorial. The results contradicted the existing norm for a memorial as a sculpture; it was revealed that most of the public preferred memorial landscapes to buildings and great structures. The study concluded that AHP could be used to further involve the relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process of the design of a public project.

Current Features and Developments of Local Governance in Finland

2016 ◽  
pp. 304-327
Author(s):  
Hanna Vakkala ◽  
Jaana Leinonen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Process Efficiency ◽  
Structural Reforms ◽  
Local Democracy

This chapter discusses local governance renewals and the recent development of local democracy in Finland. Due to profound structural reforms, the role of municipalities is changing, which is challenging current local government processes, from management to citizen participation. Nordic local self-government is considered strong, despite of tightening state steering. Ruling reform politics and the increasing amount of service tasks do not fit the idea of active local governance with sufficient latitude for decision-making. To increase process efficiency, electronic services and governance have been developed nationally and locally, and solutions of eDemocracy have been launched to support participation. Developing participative, deliberative democracy during deep renewals creates opportunities but also requires investments, which create and increase variation between municipalities. From the point of view of local democracy, it becomes interesting how strong municipal self-governance and local governance renewals meet and how the role and status of municipalities are changing.

E-Participating Decision-Making Mechanism in the Public Administration System

2022 ◽  
pp. 214-235
Author(s):  
Konur Alp Demir
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Electronic Government ◽  
Management Model ◽  
Demand System ◽  
Flexible Structure ◽  
Administration System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Decision Making System

In this chapter, an analysis of the electronic decision making system, which is thought to benefit from the heavy bureaucratic system which does not take into account the expectations of the citizen in the public administration system, will be used to make a more flexible structure. The focus of this chapter is on the need to design the decision-making mechanisms of the state according to the expectations of the citizen. For this purpose, requests and complaints from the citizens through the electronic environment should be taken into consideration in the decision-making process. In fact, this situation is reflected in the application of electronic participation management model. The application of this management model in the public administration system is the citizen participation complaint and demand system which is carried out under the name of electronic government. The examination of this system, which is an example of the application of participatory democracy, is important for the reflection of democratic values on the administration system.

scholarly journals Exploration of Silence's Motives Towards the Work Decisions: The Case of Jordanian Public and Private Schools

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 266
Author(s):  
Osama Khaled Alkhlaifat
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Private Schools ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Last Stage

The aim of this study has been to investigate and provide a deeper understanding of the motives of silence towards the participation in the work-related decisions, in both the public and private schools in the Jordanian capital (Amman). ‘100’ teachers were interviewed using the semi-structured interviews through the available communication means. The pre-set questions were directed to the sample of the study to identify both the situations related to the decisions and motives leading to silence and non-participation from the respondents' point of view. The motives were classified according to the factors to which they belong, as well as the situations were classified according to each stage of the decision-making process, where some specialists in the field of human resources management had been asked to help in accomplishing the classification. The results showed that the largest percentage of respondents faced at least one situation in which they chose to remain silent. Most of the situations mentioned were related to the first and last stage of decision-making process (identifying the problem and following up the decision). The results also showed that most of the motives were related to the organizational practices by the officials, where the total iteration is twice as the personal motives.

The Public Hospital and its Local Ecology in the United States Some Relationships between the “Plight of the Public Hospital” and the “Plight of the Cities”

1979 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Shonick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Hospital ◽  
The United States ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Tax Structure ◽  
Hospital Services ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Local Ecology

The “plight” of the public hospital in the United States is examined from the point of view of its relationship to the “plight” of the cities. Fifty-five large cities are examined and for 38 of these cities that have such hospitals the relationships of levels of public hospital services to local demographic, government fiscal, and tax structure conditions are analyzed. The principal findings point to the existence of some strong relationships and the implications for public policy of these associations are discussed.

Public Policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 509-525
Author(s):  
Joan Subirats ◽  
Ricard Gomà
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Policy Style ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Operational Aspects

The objective of this chapter is to trace and present the main characteristics of the public policy system in Spain, incorporating policy change over time, as well as the policy style that has characterized its different stages. The transition between Francoism and democracy generated significant continuities and discontinuities both in the decision-making processes and in the actors’ system. The full incorporation into the European Union also involved significant changes in content, processes and networks. Finally, the impacts of the 2007 crisis and the effects of globalization and technological change also generated significant disruptions that will also be incorporated. The chapter will distinguish the conceptual, substantive, and operational aspects of the public policy system in Spain, as well as the main elements of the multilevel government. This aspect is especially complex in the Spanish case, given the combination of Europeanization of policies and the very remarkable regional decentralization generated by 1980.

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