Participatory Instruments Research Articles

Closing a gap or creating a new one? Comparing support for participatory instruments among different stakeholders

AbstractRepresentative democracy is perceived to be in crisis in many Western countries. Increasing citizen participation is often considered to be a remedy to close this gap between government and the people. Which instruments should be used to realize this remains, however, open for discussion. In this article, we compare attitudes of citizens, politicians and civil servants towards a number of participatory instruments. We assess to what extent these attitudes are influenced by ‘interests’ (operationalized as the formal position one takes: either politician, citizen or civil servant) and ‘ideas’ (measured as ideological beliefs), while holding the institutional context constant (the local level in Flanders [Belgium]). Analyses based on a large‐scale survey (N = 4,168) show that although the ideological position of the respondents to some extent affects attitudes towards particular participatory instruments, especially their formal position has a considerable impact on how participatory instruments are appreciated. Indeed, different stakeholders distinctly advance different instruments as the best way to enhance citizen participation. This raises questions about the potential of citizen participation to narrow the gap between citizens and policymakers, as diverging attitudes towards particular instruments might create a new gap rather than closing one.

Digital citizen participation in policy conflict and concord: Evaluation of a web‐based planning tool for railroad infrastructure

AbstractInfrastructure siting has been shown to lead to high contestation across political systems. To counteract this, policymaking has introduced participatory instruments that were recently supplemented by web‐based tools. Drawing on theoretical perspectives on policy conflict, this paper investigates how different conflict intensities reflected in public discourses can shape citizens' perceptions on the potential and limitations of digital participation tools. To this end, we conducted a survey experiment with students who evaluated the potential functions of a web‐based tool considering criteria, such as transparency, efficiency, and inclusion of new expertise. Participants were randomly assigned fictitious project descriptions that used either conflict or concord words. The results show that while users see several positive influences of digital tools on increased transparency and inclusivity in participation processes, this perception is negatively influenced by a supposedly high level of conflict. Furthermore, digital public participation in railroad planning is perceived as contributing to decreasing escalation and strengthening the democratic quality of policy processes. However, digital participation can only develop its strengths if there are accompanying measures and discourses to secure trust. In addition, the tool's potential seems to be higher in less escalated conflict situations and fully escalated situations than in asymmetrically escalated conflicts.

The integrity of digital policies and political participation in Uganda: a tale of dissent and digital repression?

ABSTRACT In response to an unresponsive government, citizens in Uganda have reacted by constructing their own spaces of participation from below. These bottom-up participatory spaces help citizens to escape the repression of regimes and counter their elimination by political representatives and administrative elites from decision-making processes. However, the participatory instruments from below seemingly threaten the regime's survival and the elites’ hierarchies. Consequently, the use of bottom-up instruments in Uganda has often faced severe restrictions and control from the state through the use of online and digital communication laws. What is the level of integrity and fairness of digital policies and new online and digital communication laws in Uganda? The article profiles the monitoring of online instruments of participation by the state, and discusses the views of Ugandans towards the integrity and implementation of digital policies in Uganda.

New frameworks and experiences in local planning: Luhansk region and the state of main instruments

Aim. Post-communist planning in Ukraine was essentially transformed over the last years with new approaches, instruments and practices changing the very idea of planning at the local level. As a result, local planning is becoming a mix of multiple usual planning instruments, new optional tools, which have appeared with imported conceptions and widespread participatory practices. This article uses the context of Luhansk region to address the question how this variety of instruments transform the planning processes at the local level in post-transitional perspective. We examine how planning and participatory instruments are developed and combined in the territorial communities of Luhansk region, what are the outcomes and how the main actors evaluate the planning process. Methodology. In this article, we consider how territorial communities use the planning and participation instruments from the standpoints of spatial transformations and place-making, using the experience of the region with a severe planning crisis in recent decades. In order to analyze the state of use of planning and participation instruments at the local level, we focus on planning documents and participatory tools in 26 territorial communities of the government controlled areas in Luhansk region (as of the end of 2021). Additional data for contextualizing empirical information on the planning process, its outcomes and particular instruments were obtained from two focus groups, which involved 35 persons, including local officials, local activists and residents from different territorial communities of Luhansk region. Results. We argue that territorial communities rely on quite diverse planning documents and participatory practices with insufficient focus on planning instruments for balancing the spatial development. Active introduction of the new public participation tools that have become available in recent years had a paradoxical effect in the region, when implementing without reliance on planning instruments. At the same time, many territorial communities are adapting various instruments to specific local context, thus contributing significantly to developing the local institutional environment, creating local success stories and strengthening democratic decision-making. We show that planning instruments, their implementations and outcomes of planning activity in most cases are perceived and evaluated differently by the main actors, however many of them are becoming increasingly aware about planning process and interested in developing the planning culture. Novelty and practical significance. This paper contributes to the discussion on the evolution of local planning instruments, the role and effectiveness of certain instruments in the post-transitional perspective. Understanding the state of affairs with local planning and participatory instruments, their interplay and ability to provide expected outcomes contributes to strengthening of the local planning policy and making it more effective.

Kommunalwahlen in der Covid-19-Pandemie: Demokratischer Semi-Lockdown als Digitalisierungsschub?

Representative surveys among local councilors in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, and Lower Saxony showed the enormous effect the Covid-19 pandemic had on local politics as well as the demand for more alternative digital participatory instruments. During the local election in North Rhine-Westphalia in September 2020, in Hesse in March and in Lower Saxony in September 2021, the pandemic showed both different levels and phases of incidents. More or less strict contact restrictions, obligatory mask wearing, tests as well as vaccination were seen as a hindrance and a democratic semi-lockdown by most councilors. Before the local elections, not only council meetings and local commissions but also party registrations, party conventions to prepare for the local elections as well as most civil society meetings were restricted. Electoral campaigning with direct contacts was nearly impossible. Tue survey shows that digital tools for the city councils’ information systems as well as online platforms for citizen participation were not sufficient alternatives and revealed numerous deficits.

Cooperating for added value: Using participatory game theory in implementing nature-based flood defences

The increasingly active role of stakeholders in the development of innovative nature-based solutions calls for appropriate instruments to support and realise added value from their involvement. In this paper we apply a newly developed instrument “Cooperation for Added Value” (Co-Add) to a study area on the Dutch coast. The instrument draws on participatory game theory and policy analysis to provide a theoretically sound structure for facilitating interactions aimed at identifying shared opportunities and potential coalitions for cooperation. The application in the case study Noard-Fryslân Bûtendyks affirmed that the Co-Add instrument systematically facilitated stakeholders in exploring potentially promising opportunities and gaining insight in the added value of engaging in diverse cooperations. Stakeholders came to understand which solutions were more achievable than others and what was needed to enable implementation in terms of collaboration, including the role of their own organization. Furthermore, social dilemmas in which a particular nature-based solution is attractive to a coalition of stakeholders but is not the most beneficial solution for a particular individual stakeholder, became clear. This represents a practical contribution to the range of participatory instruments that can be applied in societally challenging complex problems that require collaboration for their resolution.

Strategic land-use planning instruments in tropical regions: state of the art and future research

ABSTRACT Human-induced activities are threatening the socio-economic and ecological sustainability of land systems globally, including in tropical, low-income regions. In these regions, land-use planning is used to assess, manage, and monitor the physical, social, and economic conditions of territories and thus assist agribusiness, smallholder farmers, and other land users. There is, however, a lack of systematic studies identifying strategic land-use planning instruments and further detailing the extent to which their characteristics support land governance. In this paper, we attempt to address this gap. Based on a literature review, we identified three clusters of instruments, supporting land-use planning: (I) land-assessment instruments, (II) land-zoning instruments, and (III) participatory instruments. Plan-implementation instruments were not found. We conclude by sketching future research on (i) land tenure–planning nexus, (ii) streamlining plan-implementation, and (iii) transdisciplinary planning processes, intended to expand further the importance of the strategic approach in land-use planning in terms of governing tropical landscapes.

Islamic Instruments

Islamic Instruments Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe the status of Islamic instruments, to track their origin, their advantages and their types by explicating the developments that took place in this area. It shows that Islamic instruments are documents of equal value that represent common shares in the ownership of objects, benefits or services in the assets of a particular enterprise or investment activity after the collection of the value of the instruments and the closure of the subscription and the commencement of their use while issuing them. There are several types of Islamic instruments such as agricultural instruments, industry instruments, instruments of peace, instruments of tenancy, instruments of participation and instruments of speculation. Keywords: Islamic instruments, tenancy instruments, participatory instruments, speculative instruments

Co-Shaping Smart Cities

This paper studies participation divides on civic crowdsourcing platforms in a smart city context, hybrid applications of distributed urban innovation management, and new modes of digital citizenship, often applied to co-shape future urban environments. However, the emergence of new participatory instruments also brings new digital inequalities, as their adoption is not distributed equally. Hence, from an explicitly interdisciplinary perspective, this article explores the role of civic engagement, digital inequalities, and opinion leadership in understanding differences in participatory behavior on such platforms. Using a regression model (N = 178), this study shows that participation differences on civic crowdsourcing platforms are explained by opinion leadership and political engagement, but not by community engagement, traditional digital inequalities. This reveals that such platforms are used most by those who were already participating and have high levels of expertise, which sheds a light on the potential empowerment of such platforms and its democratic implications.

Participatory Democracy and Sustainability. Deliberative Democratic Innovation and Its Acceptance by Citizens and German Local Councilors

Political participation and sustainability seem to be closely intertwined. In the last few decades it can be shown that the topic of sustainability and ecological interest groups play an important role in citizen engagement, political participation, and democratic innovations at the local level. Using a participatory rhombus model of participatory democracy, different forms of participation and democratic innovations in the representative sphere, in direct democracy, in demonstrative participatory space, and finally in deliberative participatory instruments are important in the decision-making for sustainability policies. Here the paper tries to close the gap in empirical data on the perceptions of citizens and councilors on these participatory instruments. Citizens believe strongly in the importance of elections and referendums, but they extend their political repertoire and start protesting and demanding more deliberative democracy. Councilors positively perceive democratic innovations, and the councilors of the Green Party in particular strongly support new participatory instruments. However, citizens and councilors do not support all instruments in the same way.

Deliberative democracy in the time of crisis: participatory instruments at the local level and their limitations (some remarks)

1. Ahlstrom-Vij, K. (2012). Why Deliberative Democracy is (Still) Untenable. Public Affairs Quarterly 26(3), pp. 199-220. ISSN 0887-0373. Google Scholar

Gli strumenti finanziari partecipativi quale meccanismo di Creditor Engagement

Obiettivo del lavoro è quello di esaminare il complesso rapporto che si instaura tra creditori e debitori, nella fase delicata del concordato preventivo. Recenti esperienze documentano che l'utilizzo degli Strumenti Finanziari Partecipativi (SFP), all'interno dei concordati preventivi, sembrerebbe esercitare effetti negoziali positivi. Gli SFP, in alcuni casi, appaiono in grado di facilitare i rapporti di engagement tra creditore e debitore, spingendo i creditori a sostenere l'omologa del concordato.L'uso degli SFP faciliterebbe, quindi, la difficile negoziazione dei rapporti tra creditori e debitori, favorendo il raggiungimento di un equilibrio tra tutti i player interessati, col duplice scopo di tutelare i creditori, ma, soprattutto, di assicurare continuità e stabilità all'impresa.In quest'ottica, si cercherà di rileggere gli SFP quale meccanismo di creditor engagement, con evidenti riflessi: da un lato, gli SFP potrebbero consentire una più facile negoziazione dei rapporti tra le parti, semplificando ed agevolando l'omologazione del concordato; dall'altro, il creditor engagement migliora la partecipazione dei creditori alla vita ed al governo societario dell'impresa e può assicurare agli stessi l'ottenimento di ulteriori benefici anche nel periodo successivo all'esecuzione del concordato.Il lavoro è suffragato da un'analisi di alcuni casi riguardanti aziende italiane che hanno utilizzato gli strumenti finanziari partecipativi nell'ambito di procedure concorsuali.

Challenges of the Polish local self-government in the context of the development of the civil society

Political changes in Poland in the last two decades of the 20th century enabled the creation of a new political regime. The development of civil society in the 21st century has aroused curiosity concerning the instruments and forms that promote effective participation and deliberation in the field of local self-government and other areas. The perception of political decisions and their legitimization may be reinforced via the appropriate identification and application of some participatory instruments. Some legal institutions have been established and have been developed in order to increase the scope of civil society in local self-government (e.g., elections to the local authorities, referendums, and public consultations). The latest amendment, enacted on the 11th of January 2018, to the Polish local self-government acts is a step towards the reinforcement of public participation at the local level (the civil budget, participating in the debate on the report on the condition of the of local government unit, and the civil legislative initiative).

Institutionalisation and implementation of the selected participatory instruments. The case of Poland

The article traces the process of the institutionalisation of selected elements of the mechanisms of public participation, whose consequence was the unification of the rules of implementation and formalisation. The process, however, did not result in an increase in civic engagement on the part of the citizens of all the territorial units under consideration. The article presents the outcome of both quantitative and qualitative (in-depth interviews) research conducted by the author in Polish municipalities. The theoretical framework of the article is provided by ‘new institutionalism’, and especially by ‘rational choice institutionalism’. The structure of the article is as follows: the first part focuses on the principles of new institutionalism with reference to the mechanisms of public participation. The second part presents a succinct analysis of the step-by-step institutionalisation of selected participatory mechanisms that have ensued in recent years. The third part contains a methodological overview of empirical research, while the fourth, and final, part includes the outcome of the research and its interpretation.

Participation in Health Legislation: A Comparative Study of Participation Mechanisms in the Selected Countries and Iran

Background: Health legislation provides a framework to implement various health policies. Participatory democracy in healthcare is inevitable. Citizens and health professionals should participate in participatory democracy, and health laws should be the result of a process in which participatory instruments and techniques have a prominent role. Health democracy can be achieved through the expansion of mechanisms for citizens’ participation in the legislative process. The health democracy enables citizens to participate in the decision-making process and to have equal access to services provided by the public health system. Objectives: The current study aims to assess participatory mechanisms used by selected countries to participate their citizens in legislative processes. Methods: The current study is a comparative study of the legislative processes of selected countries. To select countries, four issues were evaluated: (a) overall legal system; (b) how laws enforce; (c) legislative backgrounds; and (d) health system basic model. Results: The number of legislative chambers, legislative initiatives, legislative authorities and institutions, legislative commissions, and citizens’ participation in the legislative process were analyzed in the selected countries. An analysis of the factors affecting public participation in healthcare legislation shows that participation in the legislative process is a complex phenomenon influenced by social, legal, cultural, political, and sovereignty factors. This phenomenon cannot be analyzed isolated from these factors. However, the way should be paved for citizens' participation. The selected countries use different methods for citizens’ participation, depending on their legal systems. Conclusions: Research results show that there are various public participation mechanisms. In Iran, there is a huge potential for public participation, and members of the parliament can easily interact with the interest groups and relevant individuals. These conditions provide a golden opportunity for expert health legislation.

A Functionalist Approach to Democratic Innovations

ABSTRACT This article argues that it is important to analyse different democratic innovations in terms of their functions in democratic systems. For example, while citizens’ initiatives have a role in agenda setting, practices of citizen deliberation should help collective will-formation and referendums facilitate collective decision making. The article provides a framework for the analysis of various instruments of direct, deliberative and participatory democracy based on their functions, and evaluates five democratic innovations from the perspective of this framework. It is pointed out that, when properly used, even advisory participatory instruments have a potential to improve the functioning of representative decision making. Moreover, the article shows how democratic innovations can functionally complement each other.

Dissatisfied and Critical Citizens: the Political Effect of Complaining

Although complaining is well-recognized by psychologists and economists, its political potential is still far from obvious. Dissatisfaction with social services, non-democratic relationships between authorities and citizens, and the ignoring of significant social identities are communicated in everyday conversations. Even when complaining is perceived as ‘grumbling’, the informal nature of the communicated inconveniences may be more important than the formal participatory instruments through which collective claims are placed. Criticism and communication of grievances can lead to political activism only in particular circumstances. This article provides a conceptual frame of complaining enhancing into political claims. The proposed frame distinguishes between inactive complaining and complaining aimed at making a change, which may be reinforced or reduced. The essential role in this process of complaining is given to the objects of complaints/addresses, and agents such as media, politicians, institutions such as NGOs, social movements, whistleblowers, activists and leaders.

Wzmocnienie partycypacji społecznej w samorządzie – wyzwanie dla prawa administracyjnego

The article discusses the definition and the essence of the principle of social participation, with particular emphasis on the views of the doctrine and the jurisprudence of the administrative courts. The author expresses the view that social participation has constitutional legitimacy (however modest) and is closely related to the category of civil society. In the following part of the paper, specific participatory instruments are synthetically presented: public consultations, civic budget, youth municipal council, municipal council of seniors, civic legislative initiative, local referendum and village administration (sołectwo) fund. In summary, the author takes the view that the development of social participation meets the desired changes, empowering the real impact of residents on the life of the local community. Moreover, he expresses the view of the need to conduct critical research in parallel on the discussed principle.

Procesos socioterritoriales de un paisaje rural en riesgo de “musealización”: el ENP la Muela, Cabo Tiñoso y Roldán (Cartagena, España)

El paisaje agroforestal del ENP “La Muela, Cabo Tiñoso y Roldán” (Cartagena-España) aparece como resultado de una histórica adaptación a las culturas locales. Mediante el análisis cualitativo de entrevistas a actores sociales, expertos locales y gestores del territorio, apoyadas en el estudio documental, este trabajo persigue conocer la interacción de los procesos socioterritoriales con el riesgo de “musealización” del paisaje rural. Nuevos pobladores y visitantes, muchos de ellos extranjeros europeos, ejercen funciones inéditas en el territorio, al tiempo que retrocede la importancia de la población local en la gestión activa del paisaje. El gran incremento en la demanda de viviendas –vacacionales o dormitorio- derivada de la proximidad a Cartagena y el atractivo de sus paisajes, y los cambios en su distribución y tipología arquitectónica, contrastan con el ajuste tradicional de la población a las posibilidades agrarias. Mientras crece la intervención en el paisaje del ecoturismo y, sobre todo, del deporte en la naturaleza, retroceden las tradicionales actividades agropecuarias debido al difícil reemplazo generacional, la sequía y la escasa rentabilidad. Las políticas de gestión y planificación del ENP no han desarrollado los instrumentos participados para invertir el proceso de “musealización” de un paisaje difícilmente conservable sin la actividad antrópica.

Does Mainstreaming Work? Teachers’ Perspectives on Inclusive Education

This paper presents the perspectives of teachers working in a vocational high school in Rome, considered a best practice for the success of its inclusion projects. The research adopted a phenomenological approach, according to which the focus of investigation is the study of subjective experience, and the comprehension of phenomena as they are lived and perceived by individuals. The research design was based on qualitative and participatory instruments such as in-depth interviews and field observations. Drawing mainly on data collected through interviews, the article describes teachers’ viewpoints about the factors and managerial choices that contribute to the excellent results of the institution in the area of inclusion. The results are presented referring to relevant national and international scientific contributions about inclusive education and the effects of mainstreaming . The findings clearly show how effective school inclusion requires both top down and bottom up actions in order to create a supportive culture. When this requirement is met, a high number and variety of special needs represents an opportunity for the teaching staff to develop skills and competence. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.10.4