Citizen Participation: Theory and Practice

Abstract

In Chapter 2 we argued that local authorities need to concern themselves as much with improving the quality of government as with improving the quality of local public services. In fact, these are not separate tasks because, ultimately, the quality of public services depends on there being a set of pressures for service improvement which reside outside the state. A cursory glance at the failed communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union reveals how the absence of such pressure resulted, amongst other things, in poor service performance and ineffective public planning. Vaclav Havel, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992, spoke for millions when he argued that vigorous efforts need to be made to widen citizen involvement in public affairs: The schools must lead young people to become self-confident, participating citizens; if everyone doesn’t take an interest in politics, it will become the domain of those least suited to it’. (Havel, 1991, p. 118)