Deliberative Governance Research Articles

Building Partnerships, Leading the Way

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article From the PresidentFull AccessBuilding Partnerships, Leading the WayAltha Stewart,M.D.Altha Stewart,Search for more papers by this authorM.D.Published Online:27 Sep 2018https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.10a17In early September, I had the pleasure of spending an entire week seeing APA partnership building in action. The week began in the company of colleagues and working with officials of the Department of Health and Human Services in a faith and mental health collaboration effort. In addition to HHS Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use Elinore McCance-Katz, M.D., Ph.D., and APA Immediate Past President Anita Everett, M.D., other participants included government officials, psychiatrists, psychologists, faith leaders, and family members from around the country. The day included an ambitious agenda about how to incorporate the spiritual aspects of patients’ lives into the therapeutic interventions we offer. It was clear by the end of the day that APA’s Mental Health: A Guide for Faith Leaders has proven to be a valuable resource for mental health professionals as well as faith leaders, and I am committed to assuring the guide is updated in collaboration with many of the organizations at the meeting.Following this meeting, I had the honor of doing a “fireside chat” as well as speaking at the first-ever panel on mental health held by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) at its 48th legislative conference in Washington, D.C. As an organization whose aim is to advance the global black community through education and the development of new policy and leaders, the CBCF event was the perfect place to talk about the steps that are needed for black legislators and mental health professionals to work together to meet the mental health needs of black Americans. I spoke about the need for more and better cultural competency training for all psychiatrists and creating a stigma-reduction campaign to promote greater willingness to talk about mental health issues among black Americans. This exciting opportunity was followed by APA’s fall ritual known as the September component meetings. Although smaller than I remember from my own early career days, these internal “partnerships” are still the one place where members get to see the inner workings of APA going at maximum speed. Different from APA’s deliberative governance bodies, the APA components are the cogs that keep the engine of APA moving. Tasks, actions, and recommendations begin in the discussions held by these member “partnership” groups over a few days in September and result in consensus resource documents and position statements that represent a framework for all that we do in APA in support of our members and the patients we serve. If you want to join in this work, now is the time to research the various components and let President-elect Bruce Schwartz, M.D., know of your interest in this work. Please send the name of the component on which you would like to work along with a one-page description of your background, experience, and qualifications to [email protected].The week ended with a meeting to discuss how APA might develop and maintain a relationship with external groups to assure that persons with mental illness in jails and prisons receive the highest quality services available. The work begun by APA in the Stepping Up Initiative has resulted in policy and practice changes in some parts of the country, and I believe that we must now reframe that strategy into a psychiatrically driven initiative in which APA works with external groups to develop evidence-informed policies and programs for this growing population. I will keep you updated as we continue working on a proposal to support this work.I sincerely hope that APA will be a part of more events like this in the future. While it may not be a pleasant message to deliver, our representatives in government, Congress, and the philanthropic communities need to hear that the mental health care needs of thousands of Americans in many communities and practice settings are not being met. We will continue to work with all these groups to address the health inequities, workforce issues, gaps in care, and stigma experienced by those with mental illness until all Americans can access the high-quality care they deserve. ■ ISSUES NewArchived

Political Leaders and Public Engagement: The Hidden World of Informal Elite–Citizen Interaction

To date, practical and scholarly work on participatory and deliberative governance has focused on supply-side issues such as how to engage citizens in public policy. Yet little is known about the demand for public engagement, particularly from those authorised to make collective decisions. This article empirically examines how political leaders view and value public input. It draws on 51 in-depth interviews with senior national ministers from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. The interviews reveal that leaders value public input because it informs their decisions, connects them to everyday people and ‘tests’ advice from other sources. Their support for participatory governing is, however, qualified; they find formal consultation processes too staged and antagonistic to produce constructive interactions. Instead leaders prefer informal, spontaneous conversations with individual citizens. This hidden world of informal elite–citizen interaction has implications for the design and democratic aspirations of public engagement.

Understanding undergraduate students’ perceptions of dynamic pricing policies: An exploratory study of two pilot deliberative pollings (DPs) in Guangzhou, China and Kyoto, Japan

Smart grids (SGs) are being deployed as a transformational technology in energy transitions. However, negative consumer responses to both smart meters and new pricing systems indicate that building public acceptance of these transitions is critically important. Deliberative Pollings (DPs) offer the potential to effectively integrate public perceptions into energy transition decision-making. Most deliberative governance studies focus on western countries and very few examine the Asian context. This paper presents an exploratory study of undergraduate students' perceptions of dynamic pricing options in two pilot DPs conducted in the cities of Guangzhou and Kyoto. The study indicates that deliberative processes yield mixed outcomes in changing participants' choice of pricing options. While many welcomed new pricing options, a significant number supported status quo options. Second, the normative mechanisms and outcomes of deliberative participation seem to apply in the Asian context. DP appears to enhance participants' acceptance of complex and sophisticated pricing options. Dialogic processes enhanced the participants’ ability to understand complex issues and weigh up trade-offs when comparing options. Third, national level contextual differences associated with public distrust and familiarity with market logic may explain the differences in responses between Chinese and Japanese participants. We argue that complex and controversial energy decision-making needs to be supported by deliberative participatory processes to enable citizens to make informed and considered choices.

Orchestration in political processes: Involvement of experts, citizens, and participatory professionals in forest policy making

The overarching aim of this review paper is to investigate the involvement of experts, citizens, and participatory professionals in forest policy decision-making processes. Three interpretations of governance are distinguished to translate the idea of an orchestra to European (forest) policy making processes, referring to Frank Fischer's differentiation between a centralised state guided by administrative and policy experts on the one hand and deliberative governance driven by citizen participation on the other and a form of governance by participation professionals. The review included in total 81 research articles published between 1998 and 2015 addressing participation and expert involvement in forest policy. The results show that governance by participatory professionals is clearly visible in forest policy making processes in Europe mainly involving traditional groups as forest owners. Whether these participation professionals are engaged in a deliberative process with citizens remains unanswered. The results furthermore show a strong involvement of experts though the literature is rather silent as to how this steering of experts evolves in participatory forest processes. Finally the analysis shows that governance by citizen participation is rather neglected in forest policy processes in Europe. It is perceived as difficult to pursue, even at the local level. Therefore this article found nearly no empirical evidence for a so-called citizen's orchestra with the competence to self-align by deliberation. Instead citizens seem to be no part of the orchestra itself, but remain outside as part of the audience.

Deliberative citizenship and deliberative governance: a case study of one deliberative experimental in China

Deliberative democracy requires a new type of deliberative citizenship and deliberative governance. However, there has been little examination of the connection between deliberative citizenship and deliberative governance. Moreover, despite a growing literature that has examined a diversity of concepts of Chinese citizenship, the newly emerging deliberative citizenship has not been studied. This paper attempts to fill these two gaps by studying the role of deliberative citizenship in deliberative governance practice. Drawing on an experiment this author organized in 2010, this article examines the question of whether deliberative citizenship can be harnessed to solve a particular social problem and how deliberative forums can become a new form of deliberative governance mechanism. It examines what kind of conditions help or hinder the development of deliberative citizenship and deliberative governance, and identifies the limitations of local deliberative democracy in China.

A collaborative governance approach to improving tertiary education in Papua New Guinea

Tertiary education in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is in a critical state, as the sector struggles to address increased demand for student places with severely curtailed capacity. Recent thinking about improving public services in PNG has emphasized “whole of sector” or collaborative governance. Such an approach in tertiary education has the potential to improve the sector’s outcomes within its existing resource constraints. This exploratory paper examines the challenges involved in applying a deliberate collaborative governance approach to tertiary education in PNG. In particular, two theoretical models of collaborative governance are employed to gain insight into possible issues through the consideration of four main criteria: power, incentives, history, and leadership. The paper shows that the challenges to introducing collaborative governance to PNG tertiary education are substantive, and that any effective effort will require committed leadership and a carefully measured strategy that acknowledges the country’s particular circumstances.

Fund Governance and Trade Events in a Student-Managed Portfolio

Student-managed portfolios provide opportunities for real investment decision making experiences. Students function in clearly defined professional roles, gain experience, and are accountable for the fund’s processes and decisions. The authors describe the $2 million student-managed portfolio at the University of Delaware and detail its governance processes. A student team of 45 analyzes equity investment ideas and authorizes and carries out trades. The fund’s governance means its implementation of ideas is slower than it would be with a professional money manager. The authors test a hypothesis that the fund’s inclusive and deliberate governance and its process of authorizing and making trades negatively impact returns in the short run. If prices move systematically during the wait between when the selection of a buying or selling opportunity and the trade, then the delayed execution could “leave money on the table.” The analysis of all 61 trades made in an 18-month period ending March 31, 2017, shows that the student-managed portfolio does not miss out on short-term abnormal returns from its trade ideas. In fact, the fund’s buys are marked by a −2.2% CAR in the (−10, −6) pre-trade period. The fund’s governance and value orientation seem to lead to buying stocks that underperformed prior to the trade.

Impediments to Deliberative Governance: Meta-analysis on Korean Cases

Impediments to Deliberative Governance: Meta-analysis on Korean Cases

Discontinuation of the automobility regime? An integrated approach to multi-level governance

The case study at hand investigates a largely neglected phenomenon: the discontinuation of incumbent socio-technical regimes by means of deliberate governance. Comparing actor constellations and policy measures in four different countries (the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands) and on the EU level, we identify strategies and measures that have been applied to challenge the automobility regime. Instead of creating a new analytical framework for studying the governance of discontinuation, we propose to use three existing concepts, namely the multi-level perspective (MLP), multi-level governance (MLG) as well as actor-centred approaches, combining them into one integrated concept labelled “multi-level governance of socio-technical regimes”. From this perspective, the European Union is the most active actor in attempts to restrict automobility, especially exerting pressure at the landscape level. However, in spite of various challenges, the automobility regime still remains considerably stable.

Eclectic, random, intuitive? Technology assessment, RRI, and their use of history

ABSTRACTTechnology assessment (TA) allows deliberate and anticipatory governance of sociotechnical transformation processes. Which bodies of knowledge TA practitioners typically use for their work has been discussed for some time now. Relatively little attention has been paid so far to the use of historical knowledge in TA. This might be even more astonishing as the knowledge about futures that TA provides is substantially based on analyzing and abstracting past developments, discovering similarities to current processes and finally drawing conclusions therefrom about possible futures. Typically, producers of anticipatory knowledge randomly employ an intuitive handling of the historicity of their subject matter; when it comes to the selection of literature they proceed eclectic. In this paper, we describe which kinds of historical representation appear in TA and responsible research and innovation (RRI) practitioners’ line of vision and how historical knowledge could be used to assess enactor–selector games. With this conceptual contribution to the ongoing debate of orientation for TA and RRI, we call for a more deliberated treatment of ‘historical knowledge’ in both fields.

Crowdsourced Intelligence Gathering

The hollowing of the state has added new challenges for administrators attending to the competing values of administration. This article examines how the wisdom of the crowds can be used in a deliberative manner to extract new knowledge through crowdsourcing. We will specifically examine cases of intelligence and information gathering through the analysis of a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria and the use of the crowd in mapping unknown or rapidly changing environments. Through case analysis, this article seeks to understand if crowdsourcing can offer a potential opportunity for public managers to reduce transactions costs while engaging the crowd in a form of deliberative governance to understand and potentially solve public problems. Our approach involves applying the seven lessons of deliberative governance (Scott, Adams, and Wechsler 2004) to our cases in order to produce five administrative concepts for creating mini-publics for deliberative crowdsourcing.

Intelligence and Information Gathering Through Deliberative Crowdsourcing

The hollowing of the state has added new challenges for administrators attending to the competing values of the administration. This article examines how the wisdom of the crowds can be used in a deliberative manner to extract new knowledge through crowdsourcing. We will specifically examine cases of intelligence and information gathering through the analysis of a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria and the use of the crowd in mapping unknown or rapidly changing environments. Through case analysis, this article seeks to understand if crowdsourcing can offer a potential opportunity for public managers to reduce transactions costs while engaging the crowd in a form of deliberative governance to understand and potentially solve public problems. Our approach involves applying the seven lessons of deliberative governance (Scott, Adams, & Wechsler, 2004) to our cases in order to produce five administrative concepts for creating mini-publics for deliberative crowdsourcing.

Inclusive local governance: normative proposals and political practices

ABSTRACTThis article specifies the conditions that a democratic expansion process would require in order to be inclusive in the face of complex forms of inequality. The dialogue between the qualitative analysis of an inclusive local governance experience initiated in Ottawa in 2004 and proposals to integrate the egalitarian perspective of critical deliberative theory and intersectionality theories throws up two elements that facilitate inclusive deliberative governance: (1) the incorporation of the intersectional perspective into the design and running of local governance apparatuses and (2) the implementation of enclave deliberation.

‘If This Was a Normal Situation’: Challenges and Potentials for Deliberative Democratic Peacebuilding in Kosovo's Emerging Governance Networks

SummaryThe link between public administration and conflict resolution is traditionally understood through the ‘democratic peace’ thesis, which holds that war is less likely in democracies than in non‐democracies. Limited success with post‐conflict democratisation missions has opened space for renewed research on three strands of ‘deeper democracy’: decentralisation, participation and deliberation. This article reports on the study of deliberative democratic practices in emerging governance networks in Prishtina. Through an investigation of three contentious issues in Prishtina's public spaces, research combines documentary sources with field interviews with governance actors to identify factors that enable and constrain the scope for deliberative decision‐making in governance networks. Case studies point to six main influences: ‘securitisation’, trust building, ‘mandate parallelism’, structural patterns of inclusion and exclusion, network structures and the properties of governed public spaces. In addition, two frames are found to be particularly resistant to deliberative engagement: Kosovo's status and ethnic identities. We formulate a tentative conclusion to be further investigated: in contexts where distrust is high, deliberative governance requires a rigid adherence to an overarching reference framework that can create discursive space within which relative deliberation can take place. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Politics of Participation—In Search for Deliberative Governance in China

A rising enthusiasm among general public to participate the government businesses has become a noticeable development in China’s recent history. Authors have observed government sponsored programs to endorse policy feedbacks from society; we have also witnessed spontaneous actions by individuals and social groups to involve in the debate and discussion on varies socioeconomic issues and problems, mostly through direct contact with government agencies, or mass media and social media networks. It is through open, fair and public deliberation over large and small issues in all sectors of government institutions that the quality of government governance has been steadily improved. This in return galvanizes further changes in the political institutions, processes and policy making outcomes, and contributes to a higher echelon of legitimacy for the regime. Politics of political participation through democratic deliberation in China is a logical result of a permanent transformation in decades—from the change of political rhetoric in nation’s Constitution, to amazingly expanded economy, profound restructured social stratifications, redistributed wealth and assets, enormous number of affluent middle class population, and increasingly fledged agents of civil society. We argue that the growth of massive participation in government businesses has not only proved to be realistic to its governance, but also well serves an alternative mechanism for oversight of government behavior. Deliberative democracy is useful because it is a complementary agent to electoral democracy.

Engineering performant, innovative and sustainable health systems

Background : In a time of growing health expenditures and inefficiencies, ageing populations, rise of chronic diseases, co-morbity and technical evolutions, there is a worldwide quest for performant, innovative and sustainable health systems that are, a.o. effective and cost-efficient, patient-centric and co-creative and able to deal with the growing society dynamics. Problem statement : Effectively implementing strategic initiatives that tackle these challenges appears a frightening task since the majority of implementations fail. Current approaches and frameworks addressing organizational changes are fragmented, heterogeneous and mostly descriptive. We aimed to design and develop a more prescriptive, holistic and integrated approach. Literature review : Methodologies, governance techniques, approaches and other “best practices” from a.o. the manufacturing and generic services sector are being applied to health and health care services. We observed the existing organizational science literature and found that most existing approaches are not, or inadequately concerned with design and many share the same underlying mechanistic characteristics: strongly management and planning oriented, focus on internal control that apparently should secure success of future health system organizations. Theory : We summarize the needed concepts and theoretical background of the Enterprise Engineering discipline, including Enterprise Ontology (the implementation-independent essence of organizations) and the DEMO methodology, Enterprise Governance and the Normalized Systems theory. Method : We used the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) and demonstration is based on real health reform proposals and (fictitious) anecdotal scenarios. Discussion : Formal publication of architectural principles and requirements according to the Enterprise Architecture discipline aids in: - correlating enterprise design principles to areas of concern, and further to strategic choices, norms and values, and policies; - providing coherent and consistent attention to the various implications of architecture; - defining a coherent and consistent set of follow-up activities defined as key actions (studies, pilots, projects) to enable the architecture to be effective; As main characteristics of using Enterprise Ontology, we demonstrated: - it ensures completeness in unambiguously discerning all activities required to deliver health services; - it aids considering and comparing different implementations of these activities and their executing actor roles in health organizations, people and automation; - the models can be used in “just in time, just enough detail”-mode; - creating the models is possible with an attractive return-on-modeling-effort (ROME); Different strategic choices, areas of concern, as well as functional and constructional requirements are not met at the implementation-independent level. In order to perform optimally and to implement changes successfully, these organizations must operate as a unified and integrated whole, which can only be achieved through deliberate Enterprise Development and Enterprise Governance. Furthermore, we show it is possible to integrate compatible and relevant analysis techniques and improvement/quantification methods to prepare a better, more objective and more “calculated” change reform proposal, or to assess the impact of an existing one. Conclusion: Lack of enterprise integration and coherence has been identified as one of the core reasons for not successfully operationalizing strategic initiatives. In view of the several enterprise aspects, a design approach must be able to address all aspects. Realization must be intentionally designed, as virtually all causes for poor enterprise performance are systemic. Also, a fundamentally different perspective on governance is essential for: (1) addressing enterprise dynamics, complexity and associated uncertainty; (2) iteratively, evolutionary, and emergent development of strategic initiatives and their operationalization and (3) realizing a unified and integrated enterprise organization and operation. The Enterprise Engineering paradigm and integrated with compatible analysis techniques, improvement and quantification methods; provide a solid foundational theory and methodology, different and unified approach for integrating several enterprise aspects that would otherwise be treated incoherently and inconsistently, causing failures in strategic initiative implementations. In relation to the theories underlying our proposal, we experienced: (1) an initial steep learning curve and emergence of the EE Discipline; (2) that not all activities in organizations are transaction based as they experience emergent properties, and can therefore not be expressed in the current EO theory, e.g. strategy development, decision making processes, knowledge workers or enterprise design itself; (3) that the understandability of the produced EO models by the stakeholders must not be taken for granted; (4) a strong desire for an (unattainable) fully codified method. During our research, we also experienced a strong pull towards the financing and expenditure context, both in literature interviews, reform proposals, demonstrative cases and interviews. Another phenomena, was the lack of public availability and scarcity of up-to-date, reliable and comparable data and measures to work with. We have high confidence in the application of our proposal to address problems of inefficiency and unsustainability in health system organization using a deliberate enterprise development and governance approach.

Second home tourism impact and governance: Evidence from the Caspian Sea region of Iran

This study evaluates the effects of the second home phenomenon in the Caspian Sea region of Iran. The unique spatial characteristics of this region have made it a magnet for domestic and international tourists. The region has been experiencing high growth of second home tourism development and exacerbated population growth, especially in the last three decades. However, absence of a proactive strategic planning and clear development policy in the context of a deliberate governance has resulted in numerous environmental problems in this unique and pristine region. This study aimed to explore the governance of processes of development and potential impacts of this mode of tourism in the Caspian Sea region. With the present mode of development, it is assumed irreversible loss of flora and fauna of this region is highly probable. The scale of such a mode of tourism and its impact was investigated through a qualitative research method based on in-depth interviews (focused interview), in the context of phronesis planning research. The findings revealed that second home tourism growth has been based on a laissez-faire development approach, where clear policy and planning are in deficit. Furthermore, study revealed that second home tourism is dominated by vested interests of Real Estate firms from outside of the region (i.e., an exogenous force with market oriented agenda); who are also receiving favors from local government officials. Alas, ‘publics’, as a legitimate stakeholder, has no input and influence in the process of second home development. The term ‘publics’ refers to the identifiable stakeholders whose role in the environmental governance of the region has been bypassed. The study has also concluded that the present trajectory of second home development undermines the region's environmental quality, social and cultural identity, and sustainable economic prosperity.

Community power over conservation regimes: techniques for neutralizing the illegal killing of large carnivores in Finland

Certain weaknesses in large carnivore conservation policies have led to a form of political dissent and resistance against dominant conservation regimes, manifested most clearly in the drastic decrease in the Finnish wolf population in 2014. The illegal hunting of large carnivores has been carried out by a particular social group with the support of community members, and hunting violators have been viewed as benefactors by many of their fellow citizens. In the attempt to understand how rural communities sustain alternative ways of regulating their worlds, and how community members negate shame and stigma on behalf of hunting violators, the neutralization techniques presented in the sociological literature by Sykes and Matza provide an effective tool. In collecting the data, we used non-active role playing with empathy-based fictional stories. We obtained a total of 231 narratives from a core group of hunting violators, within which we identified the use of the nine different techniques. These discourses express how a rural identity and way of life is defended and how rural protests against conservation policies are expressed under the pressure of modern conservation regimes. The results address the importance of acknowledging biosecurity issues in wolf territories, of placing a value on local knowledge, and of strengthening trust between the locals and the authorities in implementing responsive and deliberative governance; they also suggest how to formulate effective deterrents to illegal killing and increase compliance with conservation regimes by informal sanctions, based on collective moral judgments and the perceived legitimacy of rules.

The Burgeoning but Still Experimental Practice of Deliberative Governance in South Korean Local Policy Making: The Cases of Seoul and Gwangju

Research on deliberative governance does not include many case studies on South Korea. We analyze deliberative governance in the Seoul and Gwangju Metropolitan Governments, drawing comparisons and lessons for operating effective deliberative governance to promote consensus building, citizen empowerment, and legitimation of policy choices through collective decision making. The two cases incorporate the characteristics of deliberative governance to a limited degree and in an experimental stage. Based on a comparison of the two cases, we discuss the application and limitations of deliberative processes along with suggestions for potentially improving the practice of deliberative governance in the South Korean context.

Disentangling Puzzles of Spatial Scales and Participation in Environmental Governance-The Case of Governance Re-scaling Through the European Water Framework Directive.

This article attempts to shed new light on prevailing puzzles of spatial scales in multi-level, participatory governance as regards the democratic legitimacy and environmental effectiveness of governance systems. We focus on the governance re-scaling by the European Water Framework Directive, which introduced new governance scales (mandated river basin management) and demands consultation of citizens and encourages ‘active involvement’ of stakeholders. This allows to examine whether and how re-scaling through deliberate governance interventions impacts on democratic legitimacy and effective environmental policy delivery. To guide the enquiry, this article organizes existing—partly contradictory—claims on the relation of scale, democratic legitimacy, and environmental effectiveness into three clusters of mechanisms, integrating insights from multi-level governance, social-ecological systems, and public participation. We empirically examine Water Framework Directive implementation in a comparative case study of multi-level systems in the light of the suggested mechanisms. We compare two planning areas in Germany: North Rhine Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Findings suggest that the Water Framework Directive did have some impact on institutionalizing hydrological scales and participation. Local participation appears generally both more effective and legitimate than on higher levels, pointing to the need for yet more tailored multi-level governance approaches, depending on whether environmental knowledge or advocacy is sought. We find mixed results regarding the potential of participation to bridge spatial ‘misfits’ between ecological and administrative scales of governance, depending on the historical institutionalization of governance on ecological scales. Polycentricity, finally, appeared somewhat favorable in effectiveness terms with some distinct differences regarding polycentricity in planning vs. polycentricity in implementation.