PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND INNOVATIONS IN COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE
First published 2002 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Copyright Peter McLaverty 2002
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Public participation and innovations in community
governance
1. Political participation 2. Community organization
I. McLaverty, Peter
323 .042
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Public participation and innovations in community governance / edited by Peter McLaverty. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7546-1566-9
1. Local govemment-Citizen participation. 2. Political planning-Citizen participation.
I. McLaverty, Peter.
JS211 .P83 2002
323.042dc21
2001053603
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-1566-8 (hbk)
Typeset by Owain Hammonds, Bontgoch, Talybont, Ceredigion, Wales SY24 5DP.
Contents
Peter McLaverty
Ciaran OFaircheallaigh
Cornie Groenewald and Antoinette Smith
Arturo Flores
Georgina Blakeley
Daniel Kbler and Sonja Wlti
John Diamond
Erik-Hans Klijn and Joop F.M. Koppenjan
Nils Aarsther, Torill Nyseth, Asbjrn Riseland
Peter McLaverty
Key to Statements
Responses to First Measurement
Responses to Second Measurement
Changes in the Level of Knowledge from the First Measurement to the Second Measurement
Changes in Opinion from the First to the Second Measurement
Percentage with Knowledge According to Workshop Attendance
Community Representatives and Political Preferences
Decentralization and Structural Change
Three Models of Participation
Decision Rounds in the Restructuring of the K-neighbourhood
NCs in Norway, Depending on Municipal Size
NC Expenses and Financing, as Reported by NC Leaders
How Chief Administrative Officers Evaluate Neighbourhood Councils
Members in Municipal Councils, Top-Down NCs and Bottom-Up NCs Compared
NC Members Participation in Associations and Volunteer Organizations. Share that is Active and Very Active
NCs Tasks. Share of NC Members that Answers Very Important on Different Alternatives
Two Regiments in Local Democracy
Nils Aarsaether, is a Professor at The Institute of Planning and Community Studies, University of Tromso.
Georgina Blakeley is a Lecturer in Politics at the Huddersfield University.
John Diamond is a Research Fellow, in The Centre for Local Studies at Edge Hill College of Higher Education.
Arturo Flores is a PhD student at the University of York.
Comie Groenewald is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, University of Stellenbosch.
Erik-Hans Klijn is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Administration, Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Joop F.M. Koppenjan is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management at Delft University of Technology.
Daniel Kbler is a Research Fellow in the Institute of the Built Environment of The Swiss Institute of Technology.
Torill Nyseth is a F0rtesmanuensis at The Institute of Planning and Community Studies, University of Tromso.
Ciaran OFaircheallaigh is a Professor at Griffith University.
Asbjm Riseland is a Researcher at The Nordic Research Institute.
Antoinette Smith is a Senior Project Co-ordinator, Matie Community Service, University of Stellenbosc.
Sonja Wlti is Visiting Researcher, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Washington DC.
As editor, I would like to thank all those who attended the Public Participation and Innovations in Community Governance conference in June 1999, especially those who gave papers. I must also thank my two co-organisers of the conference, Andy Asquith and John Dickens. As my Head of Department at the University of Luton, John Dickens was always supportive and gave maximum encouragement, even during the difficult times the Department of Politics and Public Policy faced as I was trying to complete the editing of this book. Finally, I would like to thank Claire ONeill for helping me to cope with the intricacies of word processing and Sue Morris for her help with the index.
John Diamond would like to thank Carole Brocken for help in preparing his chapter. He would also like to thank Anne Kearney, Andy Nelson and Stuart Speeden for discussing the points raised in his chapter.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Peter McLaverty
Over the past ten to fifteen years, nation-states across the world have become interested in, and committed to, increasing the participation of citizens in public affairs. This general interest in increased public participation has been accompanied, according to some writers, by a move from systems of government to what those like Rhodes (1997) call governance. It was to investigate the ways in which developments in public participation related to ideas of community government that the Centre for the Study of Public Participation at the University of Luton, in collaboration with the Political Science Department at Gotburg University, decided to host an international conference. The conference took place in June 1999 at the University of Lutons Putteridge Bury site and attracted participants and paper givers from the continents of the globe. Over forty papers were presented at the conference. The chapters in this book represent some of the papers discussed at the conference. Unfortunately, not all the papers could be included in this book and some papers of a high quality have had to be excluded. In all cases, the papers have been significantly amended since the conference. In a few cases, new papers have been written for this book. In this introduction, I want to place the chapters in some analytical context. I will start by considering some of the key ideas behind the concept of governance. In the following section, I will suggest that states have become interested in public participation for a variety of reasons, including the fiscal crisis of the state (OConnor, 1973) and for reasons of legitimacy. I will go onto introduce some of the arguments concerning the relationship between initiatives in public participation and democracy. Finally, I will say a few words about the chapters that follow this introduction.
Governance
Governance, for Rhodes, involves a number of changes from traditional patterns of liberal democratic government. Applying his analysis specifically to Britain, Rhodes (1997, pp. 4-5) contends that important changes have taken place in three broad inter-linked areas: the development of policy networks; the development of governance; and accountability. In the specific area of governance, Rhodes (1997, p. 4) argues that the development of policy networks has necessitated changes to the way in which government confronts self-steering interorganiozational networks. While the state ultimately has more power than the networks, it has to allow the networks some independence. The growth of policy networks, it is argued, leads to unintended policy consequences, implementation gaps and policy mess. Attempts by the state to directly control or manage the organizational and social complexity which is created by the growth of powerful policy networks, only adds to unintended policy consequences. The state undergoes a process of hollowing out. As a result, it is argued: Indirect management is the central challenge posed by governance for the operating code of central elites (Rhodes, 1997, p. 5). For Rhodes (1997, p. 9), policy networks can take five forms. These are: tightly integrated policy communities; professional networks; intergovernmental networks; producer networks; and issue networks which are loosely integrated.
