Participation In Public Debate Research Articles

Research Illuminating Public Policy Debates: Private Sector Roles in Quebec Healthcare

In June 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Quebec law preventing private insurers from providing coverage for publicly insured services was illegal in the Chaoulli case. This decision threw open the doors to widespread public debate about the place of private care in Canada's healthcare system – a debate characterized as much by polarization as by confusion. The KT Challenge Disseminating knowledge to inform public debate and policy making The Quebec Population Health Research Network, which brings together researchers working in population health, health services and health policy, decided to weigh in on the debate. The network developed a partnership with leading Quebec newspaper Le Devoir as well as the Institut du nouveau monde, an organization dedicated to citizen participation in public debates in Quebec. The goal was to disseminate knowledge on the various public policy issues raised by the Chaoulli decision. More specifically, the focus was on giving public policy makers, the media, professionals and the general public a sound interpretation of the ruling, and to help ensure that the ruling was interpreted based on research evidence. The network's efforts have been reflected in the responses of both government and politicians to the Supreme Court's decision. These results underscore the important role that researchers can play in informing public debates on many different issues.

Deliberate and free

In this article, I consider the extent to which heteronomous people can be positive contributors to political deliberation. I examine the normative potential of heteronomous people as participants in public debate, and address the overall effects that inclusion of heteronomous people can provide for group deliberations. I subsequently consider empirical findings that bear upon the case I develop, and conclude that liberals ought to reconsider the importance of heteronomous people in healthy liberal democracy. This philosophical recognition lays groundwork for a more morally and politically compelling version of liberalism, one that outstrips comprehensive schemes that vaunt personal autonomy as liberalism's primary normative commitment.

Symposium 13: The Role of Participatory Evaluation in democratising Education Processes in the Public Administration

Almost forty years ago, Peter Drucker, the famous 'guru' of management, advocated the building up of "an independent agency ...independent of pressures from the executive as well as from the legislature" to play the role of 'performance auditor' for Public Administrations, that is, to convert people's expectations into policy goals and to compare with them the results obtained. At the other extreme lie Robert Dahl's conditions for democratic decision making (i.e. Effective participation, Equality in voting, Gaining enlightened understanding, Exercising final control over the agenda, Inclusion of all adults), each of them raising sensitive and unsolved issues in the area of political access, equality and legitimisation. For instance, it is known from Sherry Arnstein's seminal work that the development of participation in a selected context can reach different levels of granularity, including 'loose coupling' and rhetoric "manipulation". Moreover, Dahl himself admits that in the real world, it is very unlikely that every citizen can have equal opportunities to influence the policy agenda.As James Fishkin clearly stated: "The (real) problem of democratic reform is ... how to bring people into the process under conditions where they can be engaged to think seriously and fully about public issues". However, this can be simply impossible to reach as the number of participants in public debates increases above a certain, very low threshold. Again it was Robert Dahl to show this paradox with a back-of-the-envelope calculation: "if an association were to make one decision a day, allow ten hours a day for discussion, and permit each member just ten minutes - rather extreme assumptions - then the association could not have more than sixty members" in order to allow everyone to have their say. While Drucker's idea of an agency has not taken place so far, modern regulation theories now admit in its place the establishment of rules, procedures and standards, helping to make the Governments more accountable for their performance towards the citizens. Some international comparisons (from OECD Puma to EU Sigma) already show that the 'power of standards' can be used to elicit process reengineering, comparability and harmonisation of practices in tge Public Administration. However, an insufficient attention has been given until now to change realised through quality management principles implementation. More generally, we believe that a unified and systematic approach to public performance evaluation is missing, which should make use of innovative concepts and tools like social and democratic dialogue and an extensive participation of citizens/customers in the governance and accountability process. The Living Labs concept is a recent innovation approach set forth in Northern Europe, through which all stakeholders of a product, service or application actively participate in its development process. Stakeholders can be public authorities, civic communities, SMEs and large industries, academia, content providers etc. The underlying R&D methodology enables innovation to be created and validated in a collaborative, multi-context, real-life environment, where the person is focused and monitored in all his/her social roles as (e.g.) a citizen, user, consumer or worker. This human-centric, experience-based perspective does not only ensure a user-driven design and development of products, services or applications, but also user acceptance. The idea is to reach a more sustainable innovation by taking benefit of the ideas, experiences and knowledge of the people involved with respect to their daily needs, in their every day lives, encompassing all their societal roles.Additional methodology reflections are needed to assess whether the Living Labs paradigm can be helpful in reviving and consolidating the theoretical foundations for a citizens-focused, participatory performance measurement system that is more coherent with the increasingly 'networked' configuration of modern Public Administration and the need to find a balanced pathway between budget restrictions and quality assessment of 'government reengineering processes'.

Engaging with Extremists

This article argues that traditional models of liberalism that define democracy as the creation of a public liberal consensus are not an appropriate basis for political engagement with contemporary extremist groups. It proposes an alternative way of defining the goals of liberal politics based on the concepts of `agonistic respect', `deliberative democracy' and `discourse ethics'. Agonistic respect and deliberative democracy create political space for extremist groups. At the same time, the principles of discourse ethics contain the potential harm caused by extremist ideas and practices. This article applies these theoretical arguments to three practical problems. What are the limits of tolerating illiberal groups? Are extremist groups legitimate participants in public debates about foreign policy? How should a liberal state build a wide-ranging consensus about national security?

Consoling police victims with symbolic politics?

In recent years police violence and impunity have become important items on the societal and political agenda in Argentina. The family members of police victims, coming together in the Movimiento del Dolor, take up a prominent place in holding the government accountable by means of repeated demonstrations, the creation of civil society organizations, and participation in public debate. In response, the Kirchner administration started a ‘politics of rapprochement’ in an attempt to establish alliances with family members of victims. The clearest expression of this politics is the creation of the PNAI, the national program against impunity, an initiative in which family members of victims participate actively. Consequences for the relations between the latter and the state and among family members of victims themselves will be examined. The ‘politics of rapprochement’ is an attempt to co-opt the Movimiento del Dolor, but at the same time includes elements of cooperation. It is a government initiative to show it is on the side of the victims but at the same time is criticized by part of the victims for being just symbolic politics that ignores the necessary large-scale transformations that the police and the judiciary have to undergo in order to stop the impunity in Argentina.

The Liberal Moment: Women and Just Debate in South Africa, 1994–1996

This article investigates the extent of women's participation in South African public debate during the Government of National Unity, a two-year period beginning with the country's first non-racial elections of 1994 and ending with the signing of the Constitution in 1996. The new democratic government established basic rights enabling all citizens, regardless of race or gender, to engage in public debate. Were women able to take advantage of this opportunity? What factors advanced or impeded their progress? The first section of the article draws upon analyses of deliberative democracy to construct a model for assessing women's participation in public debate. Part two evaluates the justness of South African debate in four arenas of civic performance, action and argument at three geographic levels. The article argues that the liberal moment in South African politics was dominated by a state that prompted significant institutional reform, dramatically opening the South African public sphere. Nevertheless, sexism, a lack of education, skills and resources minimised women's ability to take advantage of these changes.

Warranted concerns, warranted outlooks: a focus group study of public understandings of genetic research

This paper discusses how the American public accounts for the concerns that they have about genetic research and the benefits that they foresee. We develop a general framework for discussing public claims about genetic technology based on Stephen Toulmin's model of warrants in argumentation. After a review of the results from public opinion polls about genetic research, we present a focus group study of public understandings of genetics. We outline the warrants, or publicly accepted “good reasons”, that this group offers for accepting some aspects of genetic technology and for rejecting other aspects. The warrants presented by the public in their discussion of genetic research indicate that the public has a complex, informed understanding of genetic research, albeit a non-technical one. The paper concludes with a discussion of the importance of public participation in debates over genetic research and the ways that researchers and policymakers could adapt to public concerns about genetics.

Has widening participation in decision-making influenced water policy in the UK?

This paper addresses public participation in debates over service quality in the water sector in England and Wales. It is argued that just at the moment when the British Government claims to be interested in getting stakeholders to participate in policy debates there are important questions arising about the future of the UK water industry in relation to commercial restructuring and increasing competition. The paper looks at two strategies for fostering public participation. First, it analyzes the structures established in 1989 and reformed in 2002 to represent consumers within the regulatory framework. It is argued that, as the institutions of consumer regulation have evolved, they have adopted fairly traditional strategies for influencing the Government's policy decisions that do not really accord to current theoretical models of stakeholder participation. Second, it analyzes the public consultation exercises run by the Water Services Regulator Ofwat (The Office of Water Services). The conclusions are based on a study of 35 recent consultation exercises carried out by Ofwat. The study analyzed 1250 responses to see which stakeholders were participating in consultation and then used questionnaires to identify how they perceived the consultation process. Most stakeholders were skeptical about the impact of consultation on Ofwat policy. Instead they regarded consultation as one strategy amongst the many which they used to try and steer policy in their own interest.

Mother, Martyr and Mary Magdalene: German Female Pamphleteers and their Self‐images

AbstractFemale pamphleteers who involved themselves in the German Reformation faced a double challenge: they had to argue why a lay person needed to enter into public debate and, still more controversially, why a woman should brave the consequences of going into print. In this article two noblewomen, Argula von Grumbach and Elisabeth von Braunschweig‐Lüneburg, and two middle‐class Protestants, Katharina Schütz Zell and Ursula Weida, serve as case studies of how women with noticeably different backgrounds dealt with the challenge. The article focuses on the images they projected of themselves. While some of these images derived from traditional idealized and biblical female figures, others show a creative attempt to argue the case for long‐term participation in public debate. The most striking concept within this second category is Katharina Schütz Zell's role as ‘Kirchenmutter’ (Churchmother). The impact of such an image becomes obvious when Katharina Schütz Zell is compared with the Nuremberg shoemaker‐poet, Hans Sachs. An equally outspoken lay participant of the Reformation, his mounting disappointment with religious politics and the decline of his home town led him to withdraw into privacy. In contrast, Katharina Schütz Zell, whose remit was the more closely defined Strasbourg parish, remained actively involved until her death.

Representing Gun Owners

Critical discourse analysis of a 75,000-word corpus of newspaper articles, editorials, and letters to the editor reveals the presence of a cosmopolitan worldview-frame and its effects on representations of gun owners in the United States. This cosmopolitan worldview, which includes cultural frames of reliance on others, specialization, risk avoidance, and government responsibility for risk reduction, results in the marginalization of gun owners and the silencing of frames and information that would counter it. This study demonstrates that the frames news media adopt in covering contentious social issues can not only silence participants in public debate but hamper efforts to find common ground on those issues. Socially responsible news media should instead explore and report on the variety of frames in play regarding a range of social issues in an effort to educate their audiences and, in so doing, promote public debate.

Alternative Media: Conceptual Difficulties, Critical Possibilities

This article summarizes and analyzes the dilemma of alternative media as it has been theorized in selected statements in the literatures of mass communication. It locates the source of this dilemma in the theoretical assumptions about alternative media and their resulting inability to escape the seeming tradeoff between political effectiveness and organizational/cultural massification. It concludes by suggesting an alternative way of conceptualizing alternative media that instead of leading to efforts to build mirror images of mainstream media organizations with all their limitations, makes possible greater and more meaningful participation in public debates about the nature and direction of American society.

Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture: Children's Understanding of Inheritance and Family

It is widely argued that a more general ‘genetic literacy’ of the public is required so that appropriate use is made of the new human genetic technologies, such as DNA testing, and there is effective public participation in debates about the regulation and development of new technologies. Despite a century of popularisation and school education in Mendelian genetics, public understanding remains very limited. An hypothesis is put forward that suggests that the limited public understanding results from the existence of a lay understanding of inheritance that conflicts with the scientific account of Mendelian genetics and impedes its uptake. It is further proposed that the lay understanding of inheritance is derived by children from a developmentally earlier social understanding of kinship relations. Given that the lay knowledge of inheritance is grounded in social concepts of kinship that are sustained by every day social activities and relationships, it may be particularly resistant to change. A test of the hypothesis is described and evidence relating to the development of concepts of inheritance and family in children is discussed.

Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture: Children's Understanding of Inheritance and Family

It is widely argued that a more general ‘genetic literacy’ of the public is required so that appropriate use is made of the new human genetic technologies, such as DNA testing, and there is effective public participation in debates about the regulation and development of new technologies. Despite a century of popularisation and school education in Mendelian genetics, public understanding remains very limited. An hypothesis is put forward that suggests that the limited public understanding results from the existence of a lay understanding of inheritance that conflicts with the scientific account of Mendelian genetics and impedes its uptake. It is further proposed that the lay understanding of inheritance is derived by children from a developmentally earlier social understanding of kinship relations. Given that the lay knowledge of inheritance is grounded in social concepts of kinship that are sustained by every day social activities and relationships, it may be particularly resistant to change. A test of the hypothesis is described and evidence relating to the development of concepts of inheritance and family in children is discussed.

Community-Building in Cyberspace

This article explores two of the central theoretical perspectives for promoting and understanding community-building initiatives in cyberspace. One is referred to as “virtual democracy” and contains reference to many of the key concepts taken from classical democratic theory: universal access to information, participation in public debate and political decision-making, empowerment and equality of citizenry. The other perspective, urban entrepreneurialism, is based on an analysis of late capitalism and the place of consumption in determination of self, culture and society. Proponents of this second perspective see possibilities for urban regeneration and economic renewal through emphasis on locally-situated entrepreneurialism operating within a global market.A case study of community-building in cyberspace currently being compiled — the Craigmiller Community Information Service (CCIS) Network in Edinburgh, Scotland — is sketched in the remainder of the article. Although the case clearly reflects aspects of these two perspectives in its stated objectives, limited evidence is found among user groups in the housing estate expressing value for and use of network services. In spite of this, both users and network spokesmen remain optimistic that the initiative will eventually contribute to both entrepreneurial and community-building aspirations shared for the Craigmiller housing estate.