WP30 Responsible

• CR50 - Örebro University (Örebro) - from 2007
• CR40 - University of Gothenburg, School of Public Administration (SPAGU) & Centre for Public Sector Research (Gothenburg) - until August 2007

WP30 Responsible for Spread of Excellence

• CR50 - Örebro University (Örebro) - from 2007
• CR40 - University of Gothenburg, School of Public Administration (SPAGU) & Centre for Public Sector Research (Gothenburg) - until August 2007

WP30 Objectives

Enhancing participation of citizens and associations in democratic policy processes has been told to be a useful way to overcome the so-called crises of politics (declining electoral turnout, decreasing trust in conventional political actors, etc). In this context both direct and indirect forms of participation have been proposed: the increasing number of referenda, consultation processes, deliberative fora that are taking place in all EU member states are but three examples of a renewed and diffused interest in getting citizens and civil society organisations involved in policy processes.

From a normative point of view, the inclusion of individual and social actors in decision-making processes raises a number of interesting questions about political representation, participation and legitimacy. What weight should conclusions reached through participation have in decision making? How representative can civil society organisations claim to be? Is participation bought at the expense of accountability? This WP aims at addressing the broad theme of new forms of participation interfacing recently acquired empirical knowledge with a normative perspective. In particular, we are interested in assessing the normative implications of the institutionalization of participatory devices for democratic policy-making, for requirements of representativeness and accountability and for public control over binding collective decisions.

WP30 Description of work

In addressing the theme of the normative implications of new forms of participation for democratic practices, a number of questions are of particular interest:

• how is the well-established decision-making process in representative institutions changing as a consequence of the institutionalisation of participatory devices?
• Which kinds of formal relationships between elected representatives and consulted social actors have to be established?
• What are the conceptions of participation and representation that are emphasised by relevant institutional and social actors?
• What are the repercussions for established understandings of political accountability?

WP30 Participants

• CR50 - Örebro University (Örebro) - from 2007
• CR40 - University of Gothenburg, School of Public Administration (SPAGU) & Centre for Public Sector Research (Gothenburg) - until August 2007
• CR24 - University of Trento, Department of Sociology and Social Research (Trento)
• CR44 - University of the West of England, Faculty of the Built Environment – Cities Research Centre (Bristol)

WP30 Documents

For documents of this work package, please go to CINEFOGO Database and type WP30 in the Search field.