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Varieties of Participation in Complex Governance

Corresponding Author

Archon Fung

Harvard University

Archon Fung is an associate professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
E-mail: [email protected].Search for more papers by this author

Archon Fung,

Corresponding Author

Archon Fung

Harvard University

Archon Fung is an associate professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
E-mail: [email protected].Search for more papers by this author

First published: 09 November 2006

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00667.x

Citations: 1,312

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Abstract

The multifaceted challenges of contemporary governance demand a complex account of the ways in which those who are subject to laws and policies should participate in making them. This article develops a framework for understanding the range of institutional possibilities for public participation. Mechanisms of participation vary along three important dimensions: who participates, how participants communicate with one another and make decisions together, and how discussions are linked with policy or public action. These three dimensions constitute a space in which any particular mechanism of participation can be located. Different regions of this institutional design space are more and less suited to addressing important problems of democratic governance such as legitimacy, justice, and effective administration.

Notes

1 I use the phrase citizen participation throughout this article. By citizens, I do not mean to indicate individuals who possess the legal status of formal citizenship but rather individuals who possess the political standing to exercise voice or give consent over public decisions that oblige or affect them. Therefore, undocumented immigrants whose children attend public schools are citizens in this sense because they can make claims over the ways in which schools treat their children, just as native-born American parents can make such claims.

2 For those who count, the Social Science Citation Index lists 491 works citing Arnstein’s piece, compared for example to 131 works that cite Benjamin Barber’s Strong Democracy (1984).

3 Many have offered intrinsic reasons to favor greater public participation in politics. This article does not assess those reasons but instead relies on the instrumental consequences of participation for democratic governance.

4 Similar participatory and deliberative governance reforms have also emerged in diverse policy areas such as primary and secondary education, environmental regulation, local economic development, neighborhood planning, and natural resource management (Sabel, Fung, and Karkkainen 2000; Weber 2003).

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Volume66, Issues1

December 2006

Pages 66-75

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Lessons from and for Latin American Public Administration

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