Building Capacity for Participatory Democracy

@OliverEscobar

Outline

• Participatory Democracy

– What’s the point?

– Challenges

• Examples in democratic innovation

– Crowdsourcing

– Mini-publics

– Participatory Budgeting

• Myths about citizen participation

• Building capacity for participatory democracy

– At institutional, professional and community level

Policy context in Scotland

• Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill

• Integration of Health and Social Care Services

• Christie Commission on Future Delivery of Public Services

• Audits of Community Planning Partnerships (2011, 2013), Review of Community Planning (2012), National Community Planning Group (2012- )

• National Planning Framework 3

• Parliamentary Local Government Committee (2013, 2014)

• COSLA’s Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy (2014)

• Community Councils Short Life Working Group (2011)

Community engagement and citizen participation integral to the

Scottish Approach to policy making and public service delivery

In participatory democracy…

“…citizens govern themselves directly, not necessarily at every level and in every instance, but frequently enough and in particular when basic policies are being decided and when significant power is being deployed.

This is carried out through institutions designed to facilitate ongoing civic participation in agenda-setting, deliberation, legislation, and policy implementation…”

Benjamin R. Barber, Strong democracy, 1984

What is the point?

• Addressing complex problems drawing on local knowledge, experience and perspectives

• Making better policies and ensuring effective implementation

• Improving public service design and delivery

• Building legitimacy and trust in public institutions

• Developing citizens’ skills, confidence and ambition

• Enabling more active citizens and communities

Key challenges in organising participatory processes

The growing field of Democratic Innovation: Building institutions

for participatory democracy

Mini-publics

• A mini-public brings together a group of citizens selected by lot, and remunerated, to deliberate on a policy issue– E.g. setting policy priorities, designing services, reviewing

policies + services

• Learning phase - participants are exposed to information and range of views– From ‘witnesses’ selected for their expertise or because

they represent affected interests

• The mini-public then produces decisions or recommendations that the relevant authority must respond to – by implementing them or explaining why that is not possible.

Participatory Budgeting (definition by PB Unit UK)

• PB directly involves local people in making decisions on the spending and priorities for a defined public budget.

• Process defined by geographical area (e.g. ward, town, city) or by theme (e.g. health, education, transport).

• It involves residents and community groups representative of all parts of the community – to deliberate and decide spending priorities– make spending proposals– and vote on them.

• Local people also involved in the scrutiny and monitoring of the process and results to inform subsequent PB decisions.

Crowdsourcing

• Using online platforms that enable large-scale participation to– Map priorities, problems and solutions– Make and scrutinise proposals– Engage in collective dialogue and deliberation

about policies and services– Mobilise and organise for community action

• Best used in tandem with face-to-face processes –balancing the strengths and weaknesses of both

Myths about citizen participation

• Are citizens…

– Ignorant / misinformed?

– Incapable?

–Apathetic?

Scottish Public Opinion Survey (Ipsos Mori, 2013)

77% ‘would get more involved in my community if it was easier to participate in decisions that affect it’

82% ‘would like more say in how local services are provided in my area’

61% do NOT ‘feel part of how decisions affecting my community are made’

The question at the heart of participatory democracy …

What kind of citizen are citizens invited to be?

At 3 levels:

Institutional

Professional

Community

What capacity needs to be built to enable participatory democracy?

At institutional level

• Redesigning institutions to bring together representative and participatory democracy

• Developing new types of ‘facilitative leadership’ fit for open policy making

• Flexibility to unlock resources to support participation

• Capacity for online and offline participation (synergy)

• Considering national policies that give citizens time to participate (e.g. X days of annual leave for civic work)

At community level

• Support for community organising and problem solving –targeted to areas that need it most

• Rethinking the role of ‘intermediaries’ –from a ‘community representative’ mindset to a ‘community delegate’ logic

• Training for ‘community delegates’: process design, recruitment, communication, facilitation, mediation, mobilisation

• Digital literacy programs –particularly about participation platforms (e.g. AgoraVoting, Loomio, etc)

At professional level

• In-depth local and political knowledge that enables effective backstage and frontstage work

– strategising, negotiating, nudging, persuading, mobilising, enticing, enthusing, connecting …

• Capacity to assemble legitimate publics (e.g. inclusive, representative) in innovative ways

• Capacity to organise and perform participation processes that are clearly connected to decision making

• Ability to act as a conflict mediator and facilitate dialogue and/or deliberation (e.g. creative consensus, productive disensus)

• Ability to build relational capital and strike alliances across boundaries –becoming brokers and enablers

Concluding thoughts• Changing the conversation: from ‘community

engagement’ as a service management tool, to ‘citizen participation’ as central to democracy

• Reclaiming the idea of politics

• Funding: resource-intensive, but

– High-stakes policy and decision making

– Quality over quantity

• Power: the status quo often benefits the gatekeepers, but there is a window of opportunity in post-referendum Scotland

What Works Scotland http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk

Get in touch: oliver.escobar@ed.ac.uk

Thank you!