Direct Citizen Participation Research Articles

International and national legal aspects of direct citizen participation in local self-government (Bratislava, 3 December 2020)

International and national legal aspects of direct citizen participation in local self-government (Bratislava, 3 December 2020)

Multilevel Analysis of Civic Engagement and Effectiveness of Energy Transition Policy in Seoul: The Seoul Eco-Mileage Program

The Seoul Eco-mileage Program is a representative project of the One Less Nuclear Power Plant (OLNPP) scheme, which addresses the energy transition policy of Seoul aiming to reduce CO2 emissions. Unlike other governmental projects, the success of this program requires the direct participation of citizens. This study investigates the influence of civic engagement in participant towns (Level 1: 423 administrative towns) and districts (Level 2: 25 administrative districts) on CO2 emissions reduction (kg CO2/membership) throughout 2017 in Seoul via multilevel modeling. Our results show that town-level civic engagement, as measured by voter turnout, is positively correlated with the performance of the Eco-mileage Program. Moreover, when civic engagement factors (social trust, volunteer activities, and citizen participation) at Level 1 interact with Level 2 factors (housing prices, motivation of district leaders, and energy-saving practices) in each district, we observed cross-level interactive effects on CO2 reduction. Among Level 2 factors, the representative institutional capacities, such as financial independence and ordinance, showed positive correlations with the performance efficacy of the energy transition policy of Seoul.

Соціально-комунікативний діалог як форма дискурсивної взаємодії у сфері публічного управління

The article explores the process of social and communicative dialogue as a form of discursive interaction in the public administration sphere. It was found out that the dialogueness acquires paradigmatic importance for public and administrative discourse as the plane of realization of political and managerial relations. Dialogic interaction through a systematic approach, based on globalization processes related to the modernization of public administration and the transformation (decentralization) of power relations, was actualized. Social dialogue as an institution of public administration, a certain form of social communication as well as an element of regulation and development of public relations was considered.In the author's sense, the concept of the dialogue was shown as a progressive transformation of power relations, which correlates with the paradigmatic foundations of the modern science of public administration, actualizing new forms of direct participation of citizens in the management of the public affairs. Peculiarities of dialogue between government authorities and civil society in Ukraine were found out as well as management aspects that need revitalization were highlighted.The purpose of the article is to analyze the features and implementation of social and communicative dialogue as a form of discursive interaction in the field of public administration.Conclusions. The successful formulation and implementation of public policy directly depends on the ability of public authorities to communicate effectively with the public, discuss alternative policy options and use public proposals to improve the quality of policy. In order to benefit from dialogue with the public, the authorities must be able to provide such dialogue. The most difficult and contradictory is the situation with the understanding of public authorities and citizens of their interdependence, and hence - the need to work together on the formation and implementation of public policy. That is why the competent answer to the need to improve the process of communication between government and society is the methodological possibilities of communicative philosophy and communication theory, aimed at changing the paradigm of thinking - from monologue to dialogue - and building a public deliberative process.Summarizing the results of the analysis of the category of social-communicative dialogue in the network, the main components are: subjects that are available in the context of the problem; the space of action provided by the world wide web as a whole and the specific platforms where communication takes place; time of action. The initiative of dialogue in the network arises as a reaction to objective reality. Social networks serve as a platform for public discussion and dissemination of information.

The Participatory Budgeting and Its contribution to Local Management and Governance: Review of Experience of Rural Communities from the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest

In Ecuador, the participatory political design of the political party forming the government from 2007 to 2017, along with the constitution of 2018, created opportunities for citizen participation. Participatory budgeting (PB) is the most commonly used citizen participation mechanism. The direct participation of citizens is reflected in improving the governance by democratizing decision processes. The contribution of PB to the local management and governance of seven rural communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon was analyzed using a case study. Based on (1) the level of compliance with municipal planning through management indicators and, the amounts allocated to PB, (2) along with the level of citizen satisfaction, complementary perspectives (acquired through a survey) on the implementation of PB are provided. These sources of evidence allowed us to critically assess the effects of PB in the improvement of local management and governance. We found low levels of municipal planning compliance, i.e., a 20% (2017) and 43% (2018), high levels of citizen dissatisfaction (around 91%) and also a “disagreement” with the PB implementation process. Finally, it is observed that the implementation of the participatory budget in rural communities presents deficiencies that limit the obtaining of representative benefits and that imply an improvement in the governance and quality of life of the citizenry. This is mainly caused by the low interest of citizens to participate in the phases of execution and monitoring of projects, due to a low culture and participatory education.

A new tool for urban governance or just rhetoric? The case of participatory budgeting in Taipei City

AbstractIncreasing interest in participatory budgeting has been observed in local governments around the world. This paper stresses direct citizen participation in the budgeting process leads to good governance, deepens democracy and improves social justice, while also highlighting some challenges in its efficiency and effectiveness. Unlike participatory budgeting, the Sub‐borough Chiefs Forum is a community‐based representative democratic mechanism; it could be regarded as a form of participatory budgeting in a broad sense. If so, then did the Taipei programme simply duplicate the goals of the Forum or lead to a better governance by making up for the inadequacies of the Chiefs Forum? To find out whether the Taipei participatory budgeting programme made a difference, we carried out qualitative and quantitative comparisons of projects passed under the participatory budgeting process and at the Forum. We also interviewed several participatory budgeting participants and sub‐borough chiefs. The findings suggested that participatory budgeting and the Forum generated different proposals and budget requests, and the Taipei programme supplemented the shortcomings of the Forum and therefore led to deeper civic engagement and better urban governance.

Referandum Sonucunun Seçmenlerin Yerel Yönetime Tutumu İle Tahmin Edilmesi

In recent years, the referendums play an important role in modern democracies. With the rapid changes in globalization, information and communication technologies and the increasing complexity of economic and social problems caused by intense competition, especially the referendums that are held to maximize the legitimacy of the decisions taken by the public will are seen as direct participation of citizens in the political process when traditional forms of political participation are declining. This study present a method to predict how citizen will vote in the referendum only by starting from their attitude towards local governments. For this purpose, a qualitative research was designed and 2446 voters were interviewed in Kilis Province Center of Turkey. In the study, Support Vector Machines, which is a nonparametric classification method based on statistical learning theory, was used to estimate the referendum results that would be voted as yes or no. At the end of the study, by using twenty-six variables, the rate of people voting in the referendum was predicted by 81%. This results guide the survey companies' efforts to predict the results of the referendum

Constitutional right of citizens to initiate amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation

The article describes a new form of democracy – direct citizen participation in the all-Russian voting on the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Justifying this form of direct democracy, the authors suggest to regulate all-Russian voting in the Federal law “On the Procedure for the Adoption and Entry into Force of Amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation" or in a different specific Federal law”. The high degree of legitimacy of the adopted amendments to the basic law of the country is confirmed by large-scale public surveillance of the legality, openness, and security of voting during the coronavirus infection. The leading coordination role in organizing public monitoring of all-Russian voting belongs to the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and public chambers of Russian regions. In the article it is suggested to regulate public surveillance as a form of public control over elections and voting in the Federal law “On the Bases of Public Control in the Russian Federation”, extending its effect to electoral public relations.

User-Involved Design for Direct Citizen Participation in Policymaking

This research attempts to identify the adaptive values and conditions shared by user-involved design (UID) and direct citizen participation (DCP) in a policymaking context. As a conceptual embarkation point, this research will help bring design values to participatory policymaking. A deductive content analysis of the relevant literature was conducted to extract, group and compare the respective requirements of DCP and UID. These requirements were then classified by function, objective and domain and finally categorized into common ground, adaptive values and adaptive conditions. The common ground belongs to both DCP and UID and is concerned with sensitizing the participants to achieve basic understanding. The adaptive values, which are distinct requirements of UID, promote generative thinking. The adaptive conditions, which emerged from specific context of DCP, require a democratic process and promote citizen awareness. The research’s main contribution is in identifying the conceptual values and conditions for applying participatory design methods and approaches to the public policy context.

The Politics of Democratizing Finance: A Radical View

How can finance be durably democratized? In the centers of financial power in both the United States and the United Kingdom, proposals now circulate to give workers and the public more say over how flows of credit are allocated. This article examines five democratization proposals: credit union franchises, public investment banks, sovereign wealth funds, inclusive ownership funds, and bank nationalization. It considers how these plans might activate worker and public engagement in decision making about finance by focusing on three modes of public participation: representative democracy, direct democracy, and deliberative minipublics. It then considers the degree to which democratization plans might be resilient to de-democratization threats from business. It argues that of the five, bank nationalization goes furthest in guarding against de-democratization threats but is still pocked with pitfalls if it relies solely on representative democracy. It argues that two criteria appear necessary for democratically durable alternatives: the active direct participation of workers and citizens and the weakening of businesses’ capacity for democratic retrenchment.

Role of Civil Society in Sustainable Urban Renewal (Machizukuri) after the Kobe Earthquake

‘Machizukuri’ is translated by most commentators as ‘place or city making’ and mainly refers to the direct participation of citizens into urban planning and construction. The present paper discusses the concept and evolution of machizukuri from a social movement to ‘soft-infrastructure’ at city level, focused on serving community needs in post-disaster settings. The 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Kobe is chosen as the main case study, in order to review the role and process of machizukuri in disaster management in the context of urban renewal. This is followed by a discussion on the possibility of replicating this model in other contexts and the challenges which machizukuri and similar bottom-up groups are faced with in ensuring their sustainability. The paper argues that the culture and personal engagement of the citizens, and the commitment of national and local governments to cooperate with civil society groups, are essential in this process. Finally, the study suggests that the utilization of this concept has proved that there are undeniable benefits in engaging civil society in decision-making processes and initiatives, with the ultimate aim to create communities capable of overcoming the catastrophic consequences of disasters.

IMPORTANCE OF ELECTORAL RIGHTS AND ISSUES OF THEIR PROTECTION

The right to vote is one of the most important rights of citizens of the Republic, allowingthem to participate in the management of state affairs, in the formation of the highest echelon of powerby the people. The article is devoted to the study of the protection of citizens’ electoral rights and theirimportance. The article deals with the electoral law as a form of participation of citizens in the managementof state affairs, its constitutional and legal consolidation, the place and role of the institution ofelections in the functioning of the state, the constitutional basis for the protection of electoral rights ofcitizens in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The article considered main causes of violations of electoral rightswere identify and ways to protect them were identified. In States that affirm the true popular community,voting rights recognize the most accessible and often used constitutional possibility of citizen interferencein state and local power, direct participation of citizens in the state and local issues. However, theconstitutional and legal consolidation of the suffrage as a form of participation of the population in themanagement of state affairs does not provide a full basis for determining the democratic nature of thestate. The elected rights of citizens in state-legal instruments are not only enshrined, but in real termscan be observed the formal, realistic nature of the democracy of any state, if they have found and implementedtheir action in real terms Life.Key words: democracy, the right to vote, source of state power, democratic state, protection ofelectoral rights.

Mediji u digitalnom dobu - regulatorni aspekti

The huge impact of digital technology has led to reconsidering the concept of the media. In theory, there is a common agreement about the new concept of the media, offered by Karol Jakubowicz (2009), which includes new content forms, new creators of content, and new media activities. Starting from this conception of the media, the European regulatory framework redefines many earlier solutions in its documents. A significant change is the "broadening" of the media concept that now includes Internet publications. On the other hand, editorial responsibility is a necessary condition for the website to be considered as a medium, and this requirement is defined in European media policy documents. The phenomena created as a result of the new digital environment pose significant challenges for media regulation. The Internet has enabled the direct participation of citizens who set up online content using new distribution channels; among other things, it leads to weakening the boundaries between the public and the private sphere. New intermediaries are entering the media sphere, such as Internet browsers and Internet content aggregators, which perform some media functions and functions similar to the media. The paper analyzes the solutions offered by European media regulations and Serbian legislation in this field.

Elite capture of local participatory governance

Elite capture is a major barrier to citizen engagement in local governance processes in many developing countries. Data from six case studies of development initiatives in Bangladesh show that, in spite of attempts by aid donors and others to ensure citizen participation, programmes are dominated by a nexus of local elites including MPs and bureaucrats. Local stakeholders do not understand the value that direct citizen participation can bring, and citizens are unaware of their rights and wary of challenging elites. Monitoring of requirements for citizen participation is weak, and the management of some programmes deters participation. Representatives are sometimes selected by elites and legal frameworks are not sufficiently strong or enforced consistently. We conclude that a range of additional and effectively implemented policy measures are required to reduce the extent and effects of elite capture in developing countries.

Is Adversary Evaluation Worth a Second Look?

The adversary evaluation model emerged in a context that favored democratic debate. It was successfully used in a variety of sectors following its inception, but it was abandoned once neo-liberal thinking and goal achievement approaches became dominant. It is time to give it a second chance. The judicial evaluation model (JEM) relies on human testimony, rules of evidence, cross examination and principled deliberation. These features contribute to evaluation independence, a characteristic that is sorely needed in today’s fractured social environment. JEM promotes civil interaction among groups committed to different ideologies. It encourages tolerance and respects pluralism by combining professional authority with direct citizen participation and neutral facilitation. Competently designed and managed, it resists capture by vested interests and it holds promise as an instrument of progressive evaluation focused on the public interest. Since it is demanding and time consuming, it is especially relevant for large, controversial and complex interventions.

Participação Virtual na Gestão Pública no Âmbito Municipal: Uma Análise dos Portais Eletrônicos das Capitais Brasileiras

Em face da expansão da democracia participativa no mundo e das demandas sociais por maior acesso às decisões públicas por meio virtual, este estudo se objetiva identificar, apresentar e discutir as formas e possibilidades de participação cidadã na gestão pública, no âmbito municipal, a partir da internet. Para o alcance destes objetivos, busca-se elencar as principais ferramentas e espaços virtuais pelos quais tais participações têm ocorrido nas capitais dos Estados brasileiros. Para tanto, a metodologia do estudo se baseia na análise de documentos virtuais disponíveis nos portais eletrônicos das Prefeituras Municipais pesquisadas. A discussão baseia-se em conceitos relacionados à Democracia Digital e à participação na Gestão Pública, bem como o conceito de e-participation, que aponta as possibilidades de ação política direta dos cidadãos em processos decisórios, geradas pela oportunidade de participação virtual. Ao fim do trabalho, pretende-se analisar as semelhanças e divergências nas formas como as ferramentas e espaços criados pelas prefeituras têm sido disponibilizados, apresentando o nível de desenvolvimento delas e apontando suas necessidades de aprimoramento para a ampliação da participação cidadã direta.

Democracy, Contested Reforms, Regulation, Forum Shopping, Perceptions and Inequality in Latin America

This issue of Latin American Policy (LAP) covers a variety of topics with different scopes, including some that are more general and regional, such as participative democracy, the construction of regional perceptions, and the logics of advocacy coalitions promoting or impeding institutional change, and others that focus on specific topics, such as regulatory measures, arbitrated disputes, and income inequality. Among the first type of articles we offer Juve Cortés' contribution dealing with the role of referendums and direct citizen participation in the construction of democracy in Latin America. We also include Alvarez-Rosete and Hawkins' article on the rationale of contested coalitions for spurring or impeding institutional change. Ochoa and Schiavon's contribution deals with public opinion and perceptions in Mexico, suggesting that Mexicans perceive themselves as part of Latin America, but also as part of North America. As for the second type of contributions, we include one by Camilo Ignacio González, dealing with regulatory matters in Colombia, and another by Liza Harakeh, explaining the challenges of implementing an education reform in Mexico. Christina Fattore's research considers why Mexicans prefer to deal with trade disputes with the United States under the World Trade Organization (WTO) mechanisms rather than those in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while Campos-Vázquez, Chávez, and Esquivel's contribution demonstrates thoroughly how 1% of Mexicans perceive 25% of the country's income, making Mexico the most-unequal country among those where information is available and skewing income-assessment mechanisms. We hope our growing number of readers will enjoy and be able to use this collection of excellent contributions. Isidro Morales is a researcher and professor in the School of Government and Public Transformation at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, and an external fellow of the Mexico Center at Rice University's Baker Institute.

On the Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Increasing Direct Participation Rights in Democracies: Comment on “Proposals for a Democracy of the Future” by Bruno S. Frey

This article explores several issues related to whether and how direct participation of citizens could be further developed in democratic systems. The analysis starts with an overview of Frey’s proposals for a democracy of the future. The article then addresses three main issues related to direct citizen involvement in public decision-making: (1) the link between extensive direct participation rights and Pareto optimality; (2) the question whether political parties do matter in representative democracies; and (3) the role of program evaluation in our modern democracies. The main conclusion of the analysis is that, given the current state of the literature, the search for Pareto-optimal policies does not appear as either a necessary condition (representative democracies have merits on their own) or a sufficient condition (referendums can yield inefficient outcomes) for extended democratic participation rights.

Eco-social innovation for efficient urban metabolisms

The paper reports the results of a research Project intended to promote socio-ecological effect in the urban renewal projects of deteriorated Mediterranean metropolitan suburbs. The thesis is that the direct participation of the citizens in the urban metabolism meets the contingent needs of inclusion and social cohesion typically involving the complexity of urban life today. It also overcomes the oppositions aimed to the defense of established status quo or due to irrational fears. We focus on process aspects. In fact, the roster of best practices for urban renewal shows an increased growth in product offering. The experimentation conducted allowed us to verify the thesis demonstrating the social efficiency of processes in which the collaborative component is not limited to a teamwork design but features continuous participation in the operation of the city.

Participatory budgeting in a local government in a vertical society: A Japanese story

This article examines a case of participatory budgeting in Japanese local government. The article demonstrates how cultural values interact with stages of budgeting (in our case, the co-planning or consultation phase of budgeting). We find three key stakeholders – councillors, administrators and citizens – have varying degree of participation in the budget process. While direct citizen participation has been limited and challenging, we find that local associations and councillors work as lobbyists to influence the budget less publicly. The budget desk led by the mayor plays the dominant role. This article contributes to the broader debate on local government reforms and their translation into varied contexts by problematising such a linear adoption of knowledge from a cultural perspective. Points for practitioners We offer caution to policymakers about the wholesale adoption of knowledge from one context to the other. In the Japanese context, we urge them to draw on the strengths of grouping behaviour. Hence, engagement with associations, communities and various interests groups must be emphasised instead of simply relying on direct yet remote communications to citizens. Political engagements by the departments – perhaps via political parties – can be adopted before budget proposals are made to the local authority council. This will allow more space for the councillors to make their case to citizens, and maintain harmony ( wa) within and between political groups.

Referendum ogólnokrajowe w republikach bałtyckich po 1991 roku – analiza porównawcza

Demokracja bezpośrednia jest postrzegana jako komplementarna forma sprawowania władzy względem demokracji przedstawicielskiej. Z założenia ma rekompensować niedostatki demokracji pośredniej, a także gwarantować bezpośredni udział obywateli w sprawowaniu władzy. Jedną z instytucji demokracji bezpośredniej, gwarantowaną w konstytucjach i innych aktach prawnych Litwy, Łotwy i Estonii, jest referendum ogólnokrajowe. Pomimo podobnych doświadczeń historycznych i zbieżnych rozwiązań przyjętych w systemach politycznych referendum ogólnokrajowe spełnia inne funkcje. Jest to pochodną problemów społecznych i politycznych tych państw, jak również kształtu sceny politycznej.