11 Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement

imaginings about how their own situation, or that of those they

187

respect, might become different.

Policy Interventions and In this way the participation question is no more or less than a
keyhole into the social enactment of policy, its root and branch
Citizen Engagement engagement with the communities and histories surrounding it.
In practice, participation in the life of a public organization or
programme is achieved in a number of quite fundamental ways.
Each country and each system develops its own habits and culture of
engagement with key participants, including members of the general
When decision makers in the private sector sit down to compare public. Like other factors we have examined, participation is both an
notes with their colleagues in public office the thing that all seem intervention by real actors, and a discourse about what is to be
to agree is different between them is the role of the public and valued and achieved through that engagement. And like much else
public opinion. Some go further and argue that the notion of a this is a value with an obvious limit: just as a democracy demands a
public interest underpins the activities of the public sector, while separate judiciary and an empowered legislature, it must impose
private interests drive the engine of the business sector. This last constraints on just how much participating ordinary citizens can do.
claim is probably too extreme. After all, there is presumably a In other words there is both an explicit and an implicit division of
private life of citizens which informs both state and market and labour to determine who does what. For this reason we will consider
who is to say it only feeds virtue in one direction? Some public how participation fits within a more general notion of responsive rule.
interests can be served by markets, and certainly there are many In our IVF scenario Anna knew there was no way to get the issue
cases where private ones have driven public life. of 'lesbian test tube babies' off the front page of the newspapers
But even allowing for these points of overlap and for excep- without a process for addressing the public interest concerns being
tional cases, the fundamental conditions which face decision stirred up by new scientific discoveries. Not only would some form
makers in the two sectors are certainly very different. While a firm of public consultation allow a more measured discussion of the facts
may lose part of its customer base and still prosper, may cut the of the matter, It would give people an opportunity to see how
number of its shareholders and still be strong, no public pro- complex her own organization's regulatory problems had become.
gramme or decision can survive for tong without public acceptance Equal rights and anti-discrimination laws made it illegal to deny
and none can easily prosper without public support. Even in public services to citizens on grounds of age, sex, race or sexual
relatively undemocratic systems a minimum level of tolerance is preference. At the same time the social security legislation defined
necessary for public institutions to function. families in heterosexual terms, as did the major political parties. She
Participation in policy-making is therefore a simple term for a therefore advised her board to begin a nationwide public
complicated engagement. Participation is itself defined and deter- consultation on IVF and the genetic revolution in medicine.
mined by policy, by the history of policy and by the climate of The board debated Anna's proposal over two long meetings.
expectations about policy. Citizens take their cues about whether to Members expressed concern that ordinary people might not
participate from the things that have happened to them before, understand the scientific issues, that interest groups would use the
from the experiences of family and friends, from the ersatz process to raise tempers and create pressure for more restrictive
experiences they observe in the mass media, and from their own regulation. Others worried that the issues would be driven by
emotion, with the media likely to focus only on 'heartbreak' stories provided by existing political institutions such as the electoral
of women crying over lost opportunities to conceive. There was process, the party system, the established interest groups and the
also concern that not everyone would have the same chance to legislature.
participate in the consultation and that the major churches and In democratic theory these are ana1ysed in a number of different
scientific groups would drown out other voices. But in the end they ways. Pluralist theory argues that institutions respond rather well to
could see no alternative. Without a renewed mandate their own the pressure put on them by organized interests such as unions,
power t~ regulate would steadily become eroded by doctors turning social movements and employer groups. Politicians and bureaucrats
a blind eye to questions of age or sexuality. The scientists too would pay close attention to what these groups are saying at anyone time
press on with new discoveries which they could easily claim were and will seek to accommodate as much of their agenda as possible
able to help those suffering congenital diseases. Anna's strategy was in order to win elections and maintain power. For the pluralists the
accepted: consultation would refresh the board's mandate and help system of participation therefore depends upon just how well these
it define the next stage of public regulation. interests reflect the concerns and priorities of ordinary citizens. So
long as there are a great number of such groups, and provided that
their strength within the policy system is roughly proportionate to
The institutional character of participation their popular appeal, the system can be said to work well.
Corporatist theory attempts to frame the problem somewhat
differently. It takes an empirical view and asserts that many demo-
cratic systems tend towards some form of selectivity in the
Anna's case is not very different from those in most other policy
relationship between government and interests. Institutions of
systems. Participation by members of the public in decision-making
participation build up around a few dominant relationships. This is
over policies and programmes is a central aspect of public life. because both sides have a real interest in establishing a stable, well
What is more, from the standpoint of democratic theory, the more understood method of engagement. This allows deals to be done
participation we can engender, the better. If all other costs were held and honoured without undue strife or costly bouts of open conflict.
constant, the ideal decision would be one in which every citizen had The most obvious forms of corporatism are those involving unions
their say. There is also an ethical principle at issue here. Some and business groups, but the same framework can also be applied to
would argue that basic human rights demand that those likely to be the professions and to key environmental groups in some cases.
affected by a decision should have first had a chance to vote on it, A third framework, less common now than it was twenty years
or in some equally valid way, make some input into its resolution. ago, is class theory. According to this view, public interests are fil-
The American Revolution was in this sense a claim for direct tered through class positions. And the first among unequa1s in this
participation. The slogan 'no taxation without representation' was game of class conflict is the interest of the capitalist class. In other
not just a rally cry against colonial tyranny, but the assertion of a words, before any other interests can be accommodated by policy
principle for all forms of public policy. makers there must first be an acceptance that governments will take
According to the inherited theories of representative (or care of the basic things which keep business healthy and thus keep
'responsible') government which shape most public policy, all profits strong. It can readily be seen that this is a better argument
decisions must be traceable to a mandate established through free about the macro-political dynamic of any capitalist society than it is
and fair elections. So theories of participation and engagement an explanation of the way actual interests are included and
commence with an understanding of the opportunity structure excluded in each local case (Lindblom, 1988).
0
Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement through to industrial relations tribunals where disputes between
parties are adjudicated. Not only are these an important source of
Taking these three approaches in reverse order the participation
openness and closure, they also acculturate actors to habitual ways
challenge can be divided into three levels: of dealing with each other. A system characterized by an industrial
relations style of participation will tend to be based on posturing,
 systemic participation
over-bidding, open conflict and independent arbitration. A system
 institutional participation
where the main institutional path is organized around professional
 local participation.
regulation will probably have very limited openings for non-
At the top level we might want to consider the policy consequences professionals to participate, but within the circle of privileged
for popular interests in the overall architecture of the system and at participants issues will be resolved by consensus and appeals to
this level inquire about the extent of political engagement with expertise.
citizens on basic questions of profit-making, wages, equality and Finally, we need to examine the dynamics which drive local
opportunity. It is clearly at this level that elements of the basic episodes or outbreaks of public concern over policy-making issues.
social contract between state and citizenry are formed and How are people mobilized? Do they depend upon a few well-
expressed. In social systems which emphasize hierarchy, patriarchy informed individuals to engage them, or does the mass media carry
or other forms of exclusion it will come as no surprise that habits most of the responsibility for informing them? What are the values
of participation in policy-making are also apt to be tilted towards or norms articulated within the claims and counter-claims being
socially powerful groups. It makes little sense to invite people to made in any particular case? Is there opportunity for people to
come and discuss a new proposal if it is already obvious that only learn and adapt, or are positions relatively inflexible? What forums
certain leading individuals possess the cultural capital to take or vehicles are most important to these forms of public speech?
advantage of the opportunity. Whatever we may think about the larger architecture of interested
To assure equal representation might well require unequal participation in policy, there remain distinct possibilities that
efforts. For example, if the Ministry for Health wishes to invite leading groups will lose contact with public opinion, or fail to see
citizens to participate in a process designed to identify recreational new issues emerging. It will take a new problem to bring these to
needs it could be safe in assuming that organized groups such as the surface.
football clubs and dance companies will make submissions. It is
not so obvious that older citizens will be heard. In this case it will
take special effort to go out and collect information and perhaps to The double work of participation
support older people to come to meetings to discuss their interests.
Next we might identify the institutionalized forms of engage- If policy systems are built layer upon layer, circuit after circuit,
ment of both organized interests and broader categories of citizens. from the efforts of different kinds of actors, then participation
What are the ongoing forms of consultation that are used? Which describes the different levels of communication and conflict that it
groups get to sit at the negotiating tables? What is the character of takes to bring these actors into play and to keep them from
these engagements - deliberation, information sharing, negotiation, deserting.
arbitration or conflict? Most policy fields or systems have a The purpose and effect of communication is not always the
characteristic pattern of engagement between officials, managers, same, however. Policy-making always involves a dual structure. It
politicians and interest groups. These will usually range from has an instrumental dimension in that it produces decisions, pro-
ministerial councils where policy is regularly discussed, grammes and other outcomes which actors value. It also has a set
of developmental relationships in the way it allows for the com- decision reached is not a good one, the effect of becoming involved
munication of moral and ethical norms, and the building of trust may stimulate the various publics to think more deeply about
and solidarity between actors. Conversely, policy has the potential policy matters, to give greater attention to the views of others, or to
to produce outcomes which produce anti-values such as dom- simply become better informed about the best ways to resolve such
inance or non-developmental processes which are divisive (Barber, problems. Such civic values remain to be tapped in future episodes,
1984; Putnam., 1971). provided new forms of exclusion do not run down this civic capital
Unfortunately, many academic treatments of participation in in the meantime.
policy-making undervalue the developmental aspect of individual Of course it is no simple matter to design a policy system with
and group action. They tend either to embrace a simple rationalism the exact properties likely to engender trust and effectiveness. We
which assumes that it is only products which count, or they adopt certainly know from experience that designing too much unifor-
an elitist political realism which views participation by non- mity into a system, or expecting people to have common demands
government actors as a source of chaos and overload. and needs, is more than likely to arrest development, not enhance
In this treatment, however, participation is viewed as a primary it. In other words both the instrumental and developmental values
structure within all policy development and implementation need to be seen as conditional norms, not as absolutes. No one
episodes. The central propositions of this framework are that really knows what a fully developed system would look like, but
participation describes three types of action: it facilitates rational most of us can outline the conditions that should be met to become
deliberation, it creates and communicates moral principles, and it more developed than we are now. Similarly, there are no absolutely
expresses personal and group affects and needs. When all three efficient decisions in most policy domains, only decisions that are
forms of action are available then participation provides a means more efficient than others we could identify.
for the creation of the social capital from which all central demo- These two dimensions of participation and the conditional
cratic objectives spring, including legitimacy, cooperation and nature of their enhancement can perhaps be grasped most effec-
innovation (Bernardy, Boisgoutier and Goyet, 1993). tively through a simple illustration.
Participation needs therefore to be viewed as both an instru-
mental and a developmental value. It is judged as a means to
improve decision-making or implementation, and as a process for
creating the community of shared understandings which are the Traffic problems
prerequisite of any society.
The instrumental value of participation is the observable effect
it has upon the improvement of any single decision or plan. Issues Imagine a local neighbourhood experiencing problems with severe
which were hidden or undervalued now come to the surface as a traffic congestion. This brings with it noise, pollution and the
result of a wider public being involved. This means the decision danger of accidents. As a result of complaints or their own obser-
reached will better address the core problem under review. The vations, city officials recognize that action needs to be taken. If the
developmental value of participation is the effect it has upon per- policy task is defined as reducing the number of cars on designated
sistent capacities within a system or community. When leaders streets in the neighbourhood, an obvious set of solutions will
speak of the need for capacity-building in a given system they are emerge. City engineers will be asked to measure the volume and
generally referring to this dual nature of participation. flow of cars and trucks and will then prepare options for gov-
Developmental values include increased knowledge, greater ernment decision makers. A choice will then be made based upon
understanding of others, improved tolerance, increased solidarity the cheapest method for inducing the largest traffic reduction,
or sense of joint purpose, greater trust and sympathy. Even if the subject to any other policy goals which decision makers might
1
Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement
 the willingness to identify and deal with conflicting positions
have. Residents will be invited to comment on the proposed speed
humps and stop signs and then a decision will be made. Some time  the capacity to negotiate
later the engineers may check the new pattern of traffic flow to make  the time allowed for people to assess issues and solutions
certain that the new policy is working in the manner planned. In this  the willingness of decision makers to share ownership of the
case policy is a question of choosing the right instrument and the solution.
choice process itself is based on the selection from known traffic
measures - civil engineering techniques in this case. Not all communities come to the negotiating table fully equipped to
An alternative approach might view the issue as part of a continuing participate effectively. It is therefore a measure of the seriousness of
set of problems which residents have with their local environment. The decision makers that they invest effort in preparing an issue for public
invasion of cars and trucks now appears as a problem of domination consultation. The methods used to create such engagement vary a great
and the goals of residents are viewed as only partly to do with the deal. The following three scenarios illustrate this diversity.
measured flow of traffic. If their protests are seen as complaints about
lack of control and autonomy to live as they wish, policy-making
The Ministry for Education has a statutory responsibility to advise
becomes an effort to restore local forms of influence. To achieve this, residents when it plans to change the school system in a local
city officials will wish to engage in regular communication with area. This includes any decision to alter school hours, to change
residents and to discuss the permanent problem of establishing the location of schools or to close schools.
boundaries between their local interests and the ever-persistent needs To achieve consistency of practice the ministry has devised a
of other external interests. The process of meaningful involvement in three-level system. In level one which we might term 'weak infor-
policy-making will almost certainly change attitudes and demands by mation sharing' they simply take an advertisement in the local
residents, officials and other groups. Decisions will not complete this paper and announce that school term will finish two days early the
learning process so much as punctuate it with a series of agreements following year due to a teacher curriculum conference. Parents
which are open to further amendment. may write letters of protest but unless there is a major response no
one expects this approach to result in anything other than
In the first scenario policy seeks to limit and complete action, and compliance.
participation is primarily a means to gain clearance for an efficient At level two the ministry writes to parents of currently enrolled
official decision, or is perhaps a method for communicating decisions students to tell them that a new programme is being introduced
to those who need to accept them in order for them to function. In the and inviting them to speak with teachers or their principal if they
second scenario the policy-making process is itself a valued are interested. This form of 'weak engagement' at least identifies a
relationship. Whether or not the participation of groups transforms the path which people may take to advance their interests, even if the
process from an instrumental exchange to a developmental path is clearly at a relatively low level in the organization.
relationship will depend upon the way the already established The level three approach is when the ministry grants authority
mechanisms for involvement are structured. This will depend upon: to the local school council to resolve its own budget for the year
and to decide whether to employ two specialist teachers or to use
the money to send the children to other activities. When the
 how well the process includes all those affected council decides to invite parents to come to a meeting to discuss
the options it takes a step towards 'shared decision-making'.
 the preparation that goes into informing people about the issues
Why would we not expect all policy makers to work for shared
decision-making? Like everything else we deal with in public life,
2

even a virtuous goal such as increased participation has its prob- Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement
lematic dimension. The chief threats to participation come from
three criticisms: that it creates an overload in the work that public or if it takes a middle path it will simply apportion available
programmes must do, that it leads to capture of public organiza- resources across a larger number of programmes, each getting a
tions by vested interests, and that it is subject to the 'free rider' smaller amount than they need to be effective. We can see that the
problem, leaving most of the work to be done by an unrepresen- overload scenario is a serious threat to good government and that it
tative minority. may be a greater threat in those systems where participation is
based on a crude set of bidding wars amongst entrepreneurs. That
in turn will be a consequence of the kind of institutional context
Overload structuring interventions.

Capture
A major objection to developmental participation is its cost. Any
form of participation will increase the demands which individuals A related problem is the one raised by Stigler (1949, 1982) who
and groups make, it is argued. This excess of demands is then claims that the involvement of interest groups in policy-making
identified as the prime cause of 'overload', a condition in which results in the 'capture' of government regulatory institutions by the
governments are thought to become exhausted by the many pro- major interests they are established to control. Producer interests
grammes they are required to run (Birch, 1984; Murray, 1984). such as manufacturers and professions are Stigler's primary targets.
The proponents of this view point out that new programmes are Although they pretend to oppose government regulatory policy, he
often added without consideration of which ones should be says, they actually become its main beneficiaries through
closed. We can certainly see how the dynamic might work in restrictive rules which prevent competition and consumer choice.
practice. In any community there will be a range of public Regulation can mean any sustained effort to control behaviour.
services. Different population groups have their favourites which Taxation is a form of regulation. So is requiring children to attend
serve their special needs. They are willing to protest if these are school. Putting warning labels on cigarette packs is a regulatory
disturbed, but they pay less attention to other services which they strategy and so is limiting exhaust emissions from city buses.
do not themselves use. New groups form around demands for Capture occurs for several reasons. The first of these is that
new services and these attract the interest of leaders wishing to those being regulated have a greater interest than everyone else in
get elected. It is generally easier to get elected by promising paying close attention to the specific actions of the regulator. It
something new. makes sense for them to spend a lot of time and money watching
Other political entrepreneurs also have a natural incentive to and anticipating the moves being made by politicians, bureaucrats
want to add things to the menu. However they get no immediate and other interests. This concentration of attention is a sizeable
value from making promises to cut programmes out, since all that advantage in a policy system where most leaders and communities
does is create immediate dissent and lose them votes. So instead are struggling with expanding agendas.
they try to add without deleting. By this method the services Generally speaking, those being regulated soon become better
menu keeps expanding to the limits of prudent budgeting, and informed than everyone else. In part this is because they begin
even beyond if a way can be found to borrow funds to accom - with more information. Cigarette manufacturers must know quite a
modate these short-term pressures. Now once in office and faced lot about their product in order to produce it. The knowledge is
with responsibility for balancing the books the leadership must intrinsic to the act of production. For the regulator this is not the
either turn nasty and start offending part of its own support base, case. The regulator must go out and seek information about
how things are produced and must often rely on what the Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement
manufacturer says.
A second information imbalance occurs because the group likely benefits. Furthermore, an entrepreneurial class will generally
being regulated suffers some cost as a result of being regulated bring forward ideas that express the general interests of citizens
and they are always prepared to find ways to reduce or avoid this such that by staying home the average person can enjoy the
cost. So spending money gathering new information always offers benefits and suffer few of the costs of getting involved.
a potential payoff But for the regulator the best that can be Mancur Olson (1971), in The Logic of Collective Action, explains
achieved by spending funds on information gathering is that the why not everyone needs to join the union in order to get the
status quo regulations will remain in force. benefits of a pay rise. If the benefit to be achieved cannot be
Closely related to the information problem is the fact that the localized to those responsible for achieving it, then it will be in the
regulatory system may become captured because the expertise rational self-interest of the majority not to participate, and simply
needed to be an effective regulator can only be found in the indus - to let others put themselves out to press the case for change. The
try being regulated. If government needs doctors to regulate other same case can be made for joining an environmental group such as
doctors then perhaps the system of regulation will always favour a Greenpeace. Throwing oneself in front of whaling boats in a
medical outlook. boiling sea can be costly, certainly more costly than sitting at
The reason capture is seen as a problem for theories of partici- home. And since everyone can go to the seaside and view the
pation is that these are generally opportunities for these interests to whales after they are saved from extermination, it seems to make
close an agenda that others might want opened. A public process to sense to let a few Greenpeace agitators do the hard work.
discuss renewable energy options will likely be dominated by This is very much an instrumental view of political participation.
power companies and the research organizations they help fund. It It assumes that participation is itself a cost with no intrinsic
will also be difficult to keep these interests off any board or benefits. One does not have fun while participating. Rather one is
commission devised to express public opinion. giving up something in order to participate. Almost all forms of
participation by citizens collapse under the weight of this logic if
What the Stigler case points to is a form of organizational
this first principle is accepted. Even the small cost associated with
pathology in which regulation may begin well but then become
exercising one's vote on election day appears as a bad trade given
corrupted. The solution therefore lies in refreshing the mandate of
the chances of getting what you really want from your local
the regulator from time to time. Once again, this cannot happen if
member.
the form of participation employed allows interest groups to
Why then are there so many people investing time and effort in
dominate.
different forms of group membership? Olson's answer is that they
must be getting something else. There must be some other payoff,
other than the primary issue. He makes a distinction between
Free riding
different kinds of benefits available to people in groups. The main
economic benefits, or collective goods, are supplemented in the
The third threat to effective participation comes from the rational
case of large groups with non-economic benefits. Olson uses the
choice claim that we examined in chapter 8 that most people will
case of large trade unions to illustrate the point. If they relied on
'free ride' on the efforts of others rather than participate their ability to secure wage improvements alone, large unions
themselves. The kernel of this criticism is the idea that citizens might find it difficult to attract members. So they provide
will find it more rational to let others agitate for change or voice insurance, welfare services and superannuation benefits as a
opinions because the costs of participating are higher than the supplement.
 One need not accept Olson's exclusive focus on economic pay Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement
offs in order to see that he is allowing different sources of benefit
to result from participation of this kind. If we stretch his logic to stall, coopt and deflect worthwhile proposals for action. We might
include the developmental values discussed above we might argue summarize these as four key threats - lack of resources, insufficient
that for some people the act of involvement might have an intrin- time, tokenism and manipulation.
sic utility. It might for example help them feel more attached to Under the heading of resource constraints we observe that many
their fellow human beings, neighbours or co-workers. exercises in participation limit popular engagement to a brief
Similarly one might view government as facing equally exchange of established positions and perhaps a round of
complex problems of gaining the support and participation of their submission-writing by the already informed. The hallmark of such
citizens. Simple rules of cost-benefit might suggest that no citizen cases is the advertisement in the press asking members of the public
ought to participate in anything. Indeed the most rational course of to submit written papers to a parliamentary inquiry or bureaucratic
action, following Olson, might be for individual citizens to sell review. For decision makers the yield from such a process might
their right to vote to entrepreneurs capable of collecting sufficient include early warning of major problems but if so this is the only
support to enact policies. However if voting is taken as a devel- likely source of significant learning. As a pressure valve such
opmental activity as well as an instrumental one, the benefits to be strategies have some modest value but beyond this they are almost
derived will include a sense of belonging, fostering of civic worthless. Such submissions as are received are bound to be
responsibility and increased knowledge on the part of ordinary unrepresentative. They may also be partial, or biased towards
citizens (Putnam, 1993). existing interests.
Ultimately, whether or not these forms of participation lead to A more subtle but equally problematic influence is the limitation
often placed upon the time available for people to become involved.
increased demand, overload or capture will depend upon the insti-
Once-off inquiries are perhaps the most limiting. To begin from a
tutions used to facilitate such participation. Rules and rituals
standing start, become informed, consult others and then reach the
establish the expectations which participants have, the range of
point of being ready to offer a view may take weeks or even
issues that can legitimately be discussed, and the kinds of bids that
months. If becoming informed also involves gaining access to
will be viewed as possible. Since all systems require some form of
expertise, or conducting a study of one's own, several months may
participation (at a minimum by elites and interest groups) the
well be a minimum. In countries like the Netherlands where high
question is not so much whether to foster participation, but what
levels of social consensus are sought for any major policy change, it
kind is appropriate to different public policy issues and to differ-
may take more than a year for everyone to have their say and for an
ent visions of contemporary democracy. agreed piece of legislation to be drafted. Good consultation
strategies therefore have time budgets which deal directly with the
conditions faced by those from whom feedback is sought.
Threats to effective participation Perhaps the most persistent complaint about governmental
consultation is that decisions are being taken elsewhere and the
Very few policy processes are resourced to the level needed to process for public participation therefore has no authority.
allow everyone to participate; less than a few employ sufficient Arnstein's (1969) ladder of participation describes this lower level
time for people to become informed; and only a minority grant form as 'therapy' or 'manipulation'. What is implied here is that the
real authority to the views expressed in consultation processes. A organization conducting the consultation has a motive and an
further threat comes from the potential which these public interest that is likely to be very different to that of the general
processes generate for elites, including political elites, to block, public, or the local interest groups.
 We could perhaps see this as the negative value of participation. prejudice. Rarely did the ordinary citizen meet liberal intellectual
A minister might announce a consultation in order to keep an standards of civility or rational deliberation. As survey techniques
aggrieved interest group or community from taking direct action caught on as a prime method in the 1950s disillusionment grew.
while he or she works on their own plan to solve the problem. Berelson et al. (1954) summed up the post-war consensus:
Another strategy which gives the consultees no real power is one
Our data reveal that certain requirements commonly assumed
in which the minister or department expects the various interests
for the successful operation of democracy are not met by the
to attack one another and to fail to agree on anything. This is often behaviour of the 'average' citizen ... Many vote without real
a method for lowering expectations by showing the public that no involvement in the election ... The citizen is not highly
agreed solution can be found. Sometimes political leaders will use informed on the details of the campaign ... In any rigorous or
consultations or public inquiries as a means to get their own narrow sense the voters are not highly rational.
officials to take an issue more seriously. By pushing the
bureaucrats out into the public gaze they hope to soften internal The highly acclaimed study of public involvement in politics pro-
opposition to their own agenda. Here again the authority given to duced by Almond and Verba (1963) generalized these findings
public participants is minimal. through a five-nation comparison of Britain, Italy, West Germany,
Mexico and the US. Most citizens were not involved in parties and
nor were they active in political associations. Only a minority said
Citizenship and responsive rule they discussed politics frequently, and most agreed that they did
not pay attention to media reports of government actions on a
In all policy systems based on democratic norms the citizen regular basis. Clearly this expression of disappointment displays as
remains the primary source of sovereignty. In practice citizens much about the social scientist's preconceptions as it does about
adopt different roles in each system. Each has its own dynamic citizen politics. What is defined as a political act or political
and is capable of influencing the policy development process in involvement? Many of those who are not members of the major
characteristic ways. For example, individuals act as: parties may have been active in other ways. Membership of local
dubs and cultural groups might have been considered as a means
 voters for the creation of important social values. Family, clan and
 political party members neighbourhood politics might have served as a base from which
 community activists other politically relevant values and action strategies could
 protesters develop. And participation could have been understood as a
 campaign workers changing historical process, rather than a single census based on
 petition signers one-off measures.
 workplace opinion leaders Dalton (1988:65), for example, shows that protest activities
 respondents to opinion surveys have been increasing in most Western countries. Involvement in
 union or association members demonstrations grew to 10 per cent or more in these countries and
 audience members for the mass media.
reached 26 per cent in France during this same time period. In
1974 some 58 per cent of US citizens signed petitions and by 1981
Until recently, the prevailing assessment of the citizen so far as
this had grown to 61 per cent. In Britain the growth was from 22
social science was concerned was that he or she was a case of
per cent to 63 per cent and in West Germany from 30 per cent up
ignorance and apathy punctuated by occasional outbursts of active
to 46 per cent.
 Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement

The Dalton study (1988:71) showed that the form of Table 11.1 Sherry Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation
participation had been changing in most Western societies. 'Par-
ticipation in citizen-initiated and policy-oriented forms of political Citizen control Degree of citizen power
activity is increasing ... Political input is not limited to the issues Delegated power
Partnership
and institutionalised channels determined by elites.' The increased
use being made of direct forms of democracy, protest and Placation Degree of tokennism
community-based action by citizens provides new forms of policy Consultation
influence, different in scope and method from more traditional Informing
channels provided through parties, elections and interest groups.
Therapy Non-participation
This categorization was heavily influenced by both the opti-
Manipulation
mism and the frustrations of the 1960 programmes of urban
renewal and poverty relief in the US. It provides a clear definition
of citizen involvement which puts its emphasis on the redistribu- Source: Sherry Arnstein, 1969. 'A ladder of citizen participation', AlP
tion of political power: Journal, July.

It is the strategy by which the have-nots join in determining

how information is shared, goals and policies are set, tax
resources are allocated, programs are operated, and benefits really all that democratic to imagine leaving the actual decision-
like contracts and patronage are parcelled out. (Arnstein, making to a local meeting of interested individuals? If so, why
1969:216) bother with electing legislators?
One useful answer to this is to avoid the either-or distinction in
Of course the great difficulty in making a priori assessments of debates about direct democracy and representative democracy and
participation strategies is that intentions may not determine out- instead to embed participation within a theory of responsive rule
comes. The best-laid plans of a secretive bureaucracy may come to (May, 1978; Seward, 1998). In the pioneering work in this field
nothing if a well-organized citizenry uses a weak form of par- J.D. May (1978: 1) defined responsive rule as
ticipation such as invitations to make submissions to gather strong
support for a new policy. Similarly, a town meeting designed [the] necessary correspondence between acts of governance
merely to inform people about policy can quickly get out of control and the wishes with respect to those acts of the persons who
if community leaders come prepared with motions of dissent, press are affected.
releases and counter-information.
But a far more significant problem with the shared-power Every person in a group, community or system has, according to
assumption implicit in Arnstein's and in many other communitarian this ideal, to have an equal input or contribution to decisions
positions is that with the exception of referenda, much democratic affecting their common future. Implicit in this ideal is the claim that
theory is silent on the question of citizen activism outside the each individual is the best judge of his or her wishes and that this
electoral process (see table 11.1). While we may wish to see a knowledge can only be transmitted through others; it cannot be
maximum effort being made to listen to citizens and to use this known by them independent of information from the individual.
information as a reference point in decision-making, is it There is thus no getting around the fact that democracy
206 Policy Interventions and Citizen Engagement

requires officials to do what people want, not what they believe

12
may be good for them where these two are different. A further
application of this aspect of the principle is that it gives no special
weight to expertise. Those with superior knowledge of, say, the
Policy Interventions
technical aspects of nuclear power, get no extra vote in a debate
about the site for a new reactor.
and Accountability
What the responsive rule ideal means in practice is that rulers
are obliged to take regular account of the preferences and con-
cerns of the public. This makes democracy a process-based model
rather than a rule-based regime. If we simply obey rules we can Hardly a day passes without some claim of failure, scandal or
soon imagine a situation in which an elected group of politicians crisis in a public programme. A patient in a public hospital is
may choose to take no heed of public views until an approaching given the wrong treatment. A prisoner escapes from jail. A teacher
election makes this desirable. And as Seward (1998:61) argues, is accused of abusing a pupil. Companies involved in highway
'the moment of decision can have little real democratic substance construction are found to have entertained public officials at an
if there is systematic inequality in citizens' opportunities to influ- expensive resort. A politician is accused of having an affair with a
junior member of staff
ence the shaping of the political agenda'.
To what extent are such issues an important consideration in the
The procedures which necessarily go along with the idea of
evaluation of public policies? Can we expect to make policies and
responsiveness therefore include a requirement to inform people
programmes better by taking into account the possibility of poor
about intended actions, to allow freedom of information, to
judgement, opportunism and graft on the part of policy actors?
sponsor opportunities for dialogue between citizens and state; and
And if the answer to this is yes, how can we identify appropriate
finally, the process for aggregating votes or opinions should allow
standards of accountability that satisfy good ethical principles and
for a degree of reflexivity or learning and not simply produce
are also practicable? Once we have some sense of appropriate
majoritarian domination. The simplest example of the latter is
standards we can then consider the institutional implications - to
logrolling of issues and votes to force voters to accept unwanted
whom should the public official be accountable, and for what
and extraneous decisions as the price for having their own pref-
aspects of his or her role?
erence accepted. Responsiveness, in other words, leads to strong
In the standard works, accountability is defined as the legal
accountability.
obligation to be responsive to the legitimate interests of those
affected by decisions, programmes, and interventions (Waldo,
1956; Wilson, 1887). To be responsive includes the duty of care
and the requirement that information concerning expenditure of
public funds and the exercise of public authority should be given
to the individuals affected, including legislators. As such, the issue
of accountability forms a central part of a wider issue of public
agency: the authority of state actors to compel compliance and to
exercise power.