Politics and participation

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Politics and participation

• Gerry Stoker
• University of Southampton
• www.soton.ac.uk/ccd

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Participatory or representative democracy clash
or compliment?

• The democratic promise right to have a say over
  issues that affect you
• Why is this promise important
• Implies commitment to both representative and
  participative politics
• An effective representation will in any case be
  open to participation

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Pleasing the many or protecting the few?

• Politics is generally the preserve of minorities
• Do enough citizens feel the can influence?
• The problem facing policy makers is unlikely that
  they will be swamped by demands from a raging,
  opinionated majority
• Rather will have to tease out their judgement
  from limited engagement among competing
  minorities.

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Accountability where does the buck stop?

• Those who hold office have to provide an account
  of their (proposed) actions and be subject to
  enforced accountability for outcomes.
• If accountability concerns stay focused on
  individuals to be held responsible then
  governance arrangements will often appear to be
  lacking accountability given their inherent
  quality of many hands.
• But if accountability is seen as a quality that
  can be displayed by at a system level then new
  forms of governance may score more highly
• in practice we need to diffuse power and provide
  an effective arena for joint learning and
  reflexive policy practice.

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How do we shift an organisational culture?

• Audits of engagement using the CLEAR framework
• Managers need to pay attention to obtaining
  legitimacy and support for public policies as
  well as ensuring operational capacity
• Develop a focus of public value as the goal to
  drive public management

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