SESSION 11 – GOVERNANCE & PARTICIPATION

Copyright 2011 Phil Heywood

Lecture Outline

1. The Two Faces of Governance2. Buzz Pairs: Governance in Action3. Participation in Practice in 6 levels of Global Governance4. Questions & Discussion5. Tutorials on Governance & Participation

The Two Faces of Governance

1. Representative Government

2. Collaborative Governance

Contrasting Governance Types & Roles

1. ROLES OF ELECTIVE REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENTS• Representation• Agency• Regulation• Service

2. ROLES OF VOLUNTARY COLLABORATIVE ORGANIZATIONS

• Initiative• Participation• Review• Activism

Representative Governments

Churchill’s summary:• “ Representative government is a terrible system. Its only advantage is that all the alternatives have been proved to be worse”

Intentions:• The Westminster (UK) Model of elected representatives and paid professional civil servants aims to:

- Encourage debate and pluralism-Promote local contact and access to decision making

Current concerns:• Perceived problems of distance, mediocrity, corruption and apparent self serving

Representative Roles of Local Governments

1. Increase numbers & proportions of “representative people”

2. Administer responsive public services (e. g. elective US School Boards & Queensland’s Child Protection Services)

3. Provide regular electoral review of mandate & opportunities for electoral change

4. Provide a training ground for national politics

Agency Roles of Local & Regional Governments

Local Delivery of Services – for example:

1. Water capture, storage & supply2. Waste and sewage collection & management3. Street maintenance and repair4. “Agent Offices” e.g.in Queensland’s Western Regions for

state & Commonwealth income support & training services

Roles of Regulation

1. Planning & Development Assessment

2. Building Standards & Control

3. Traffic & Parking Management

4. Licensing of Premises for Entertainment, Alcohol, Pet licensing & Pest control

Service Roles

1. Strategic Planning & Community advocacy to other levels of government

2. Parks & Open Spaces, Libraries & Museums

3. Urban Design, Improvement Schemes, Street Lighting & beautification

4. Community Development & Festivals

2. Activities of Collaborative Governance

1. Community Engagement by local governments:• Brisbane’s Neighborhood Planning Teams and Community Visioning processes: West End & Woolloongabba Plans & Mt Coot Tha Visioning• ULDA’s Consultative Committees

2. Community Partnership - Power sharing with activists & locals: • Australia - wide Landcare & Watercare• Brisbane’s Creek Catchment Coordinating Committees• SEQ’s Healthy Waterways

3 . Guaranteed Participation:• Oregon’s legislated State Planning Goal No.1: Citizen Participation• Portland (Or) 102 sponsored Neighborhood Associations• NZ’s Community Boards, elected to support local councilors

Roles of Collaborative Bodies: Initiative & Intervention

1. Long standing traditions of religious & secular voluntarism: Buddhist Ashrams, Islamic Madrasahs, Franciscan Friars from medieval

to present UK’s “Ragged Schools” of C19th; Catholic Centacre; St Vinnies; Anglicare; Uniting Care & support for

disadvantaged; Mother Theresa in Kolkata

2. Fabian Reliance on energy and knowledge of volunteersOctavia Hill & Social Housing, Charles Booth & Salvation ArmyEbenezer Howard’s establishment of Garden Cities of Letchworth &

Welwyn

3. Revolutionary “inventions” - Microcredit, Worker Cooperatives, City Farms

Brisbane Housing Company: Physical Inventiveness

Conversion of old Richlands High School teaching block at Inala into two bedroom town houses & High rise, one bed roomed accommodation in Kelvin

Grove

The Grameen BankSocial Collateral: Social Inventiveness

The Grameen BankA Collaborative Pattern of Governance

Surrey Docks City Farm, London:Community Inventiveness & Governance

Participation: Significance & Roles

1. Reasons for current popularity:• Need to balance vast scale of modern societies with

representative systems of government • “Third Way” Politics (of Blair, Obama, Singh & Rudd) : Rowing

AND Steering

2. Theoretical origins in Social Contract Theory:• John Locke’s Two Treatises on Government [1689] • John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty [1859]• John Rawls’ Theory of Justice [1971] • Justifying rights of individuals to choose for themselves in

matters mainly affecting themselves

Participation: Significance & Roles

3. Roles: • Cooperative & Collaborative partnerships,(Brisbane’s Creek

Coordinating Committees) • Trust based activities (Credit Unions & International Aid

agencies)• Questioning & Monitoring Authority (Reaction to NT

Intervention, Queensland’s EDO & East Timor’s JSMP)• Communicative Action (Wikipedia & Websites free

information)

Mangrove Conservation in Inner Brisbane

Administered and maintained by N4C(Norman Creek Catchment Conservation Committee)

Roles of Review & Advocacy

Examples of checking on Governments and Private Enterprise:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change & Greenpeace

Australian Marine Conservation & Wilderness Societies

Qld.’s Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO); Qld. Shelter; Qld. Council of Social Service, National Trust & Heritage Council

Brisbane’s West End Community Association (and others)

Roles & Examples of Activism

Process of Reaction, New Action & Alternatives to unwantedproposals:

London’s Covent Garden Association & New Covent MarketsCampaign Against Route Twenty (CART) & Brisbane’s BuswaysBritish Ramblers’ Association, Tom Stephenson’s times in Prison &

Britain’s National Parks Act of 1947West End Community Association & amendment of South Brisbane

Neighbourhood PlanQld’s VETO & collapse of South Coast Motorway Proposal

Community Reaction to South Brisbane Neighbourhood Plan

Isometric representation from City Council’s Plan & Community leaflet

London’s Covent Garden Markets

(Proposed 1972 site of 60 storey offices): Lively even on a wet Sunday in 2010

BUZZ PAIRS

• Think of a community which you know well or are studying & describe two or three different ways in which governance is being exercised

• Discuss their use and value with your partner

Issues of Participation, Pluralism & Advocacy in Governance

1. Alinsky's radical independence: Back o’ the Yards organization in Chicago & Local Councils (Reveille for Radicals [1969]) : “People Power should be mobilized against tendency of instituted power to become corrupt and self serving” (as in mid 20th Century Chicago)

2. Davidoff’s Pluralism & Advocacy: “Every interest should have its watchdog“ & “Planners should affirm values: they should do what they think proper”(Advocacy & Pluralism in Planning [1965];

Suburban Action, Inc & de-segregating US Suburbs: Individual Rights for independence in an Open Society leads on to need for Political Pluralism which in turn requires Advocacy Planning.

Examples of Community Participation in Governance

1. Living: The Glebe, Woolloomooloo & Green Bans in Sydney, & Urban Renewal in Manchester’s Northmoor

2. Work: Mondragon Workers’ Cooperative; Farmer’s Markets in USA & Australia

3. Environment: Australia’s Landcare, SEQ’s Healthy Waterways, Brisbane’s Creek Catchment Coordinating Committees, Bali’s Water Councils

Examples of Community Participation in Governance

4. Play: Qld.'s National Parks Association, UK’s Ramblers’ Association (110,000 members)- Roles in Rural Conservation & Access

5. Housing: Housing Coops, Qld. Community Housing Coalition (QCHC), Shelter, UN Habitat, Architects without Borders

6. Access : Brisbane’s Community Action for Sustainable Transport (CAST); Bicycle Queensland

7. Community Life: Anglicare, Catholic Care, Red Cross, Oxfam

Manchester’s Northmoor Community Development Scheme

Manchester Methodist Housing Association (MMHA)- Now Great Places• Northmoor Homezone Area Improvement• Northmoor Fun day organized by Great Places Housing Group

Community Governance of Public Space:A Special Case

1. Public spaces are locations for many important activities: assembly, debate, exchange, rituals of order, conservation, free movement and play

2. Access & use rights to public spaces are widely regarded as tests and guarantees of individual & community participation in public life as:

• Places where people meet, discuss, demonstrate and interpret each others’ ideas and needs and attitudes• Places of refuge & meeting for the homeless & deprived• Places where the values and activities of a society are openly displayed

Public Open Space in Kolkata

Kolkata is largely built on land reclaimed from the estuary of the Brahmaputra and Hooghly Rivers by excavation of soil from borrow pits. These were previously the source of Cholera. However, following the collaboration between the local bustee communities and the Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority in the period, 1974-1986on land reclaimed from the estuary of the and sewering of the inner city bustees, the water bodies are now sources of public recourse and pleasure, particularly during the water festivals of Puja.

Levels of Scale in Community Governance

1. Modern Communication has created a world in which communities exist at a number of different scales:

1. local; 2. city; 3. regional; 4. national, 5. supra national; and 6. global.

2. Economies exist at each of these scales and they need to be matched and managed by governance arrangements.

3. Reasons of justice, well being and control means that each of us needs to have some links to each of these levels.

4. Because 6 levels of direct responsibility might be unmanageable, alternate layers composed of indirectly elected bodies - voluntary community groups, delegated regional councils and unions of national governments – may continue to have useful roles to play.

The Global Context:6 Layers of Governance & Participation

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

SUPRANATIONAL

ORGANISATIONS

NATION STATES

REGIONS

COMMUNITIES

CITIES

Regional Councils

composed of delegates from

Cities & Districts

Collaborative multi state

organisations like EU,

NAFTA and ASEAN

Strengthened UN with an

elected chamber, with police powers

Delegated roles & powers from cities to community

groups

Note: Orange for elected, brown for delegated

GLOBAL NETWORKSWorld Trade Organisation, Intellectual

& commercial networks.

WORLD GOVERNANCEUnited Nations; international courts of justice; peace keeping initiatives; human rights & heritage protection;

global agencies for economic justice, shelter, workers rights, etc

GLOBAL ADVOCACY GROUPSEnvironmental conservation,

Social justice, Refuge rights, Wildlife, Freedom of information,

Metropolitan development, Population policy etc

SUPRANATIONAL INTEREST GROUPS

Lobbyists for Multinational Corporations,

Global economic interests,Communications & Tourism

SUPRANATIONAL ORGNIZATIONSEuropean Union (EU);North American Free Trade Area;(NAFTA) Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Organization of Economic and Community Development (OECD)

CONTINENTAL ADVOCACY & ACTIVISM GROUPS

Environmental, Social Justice, & Planning Groups. Nature Conservation,Youth Exchange, Youth hostel federations, Youth Hostel etc

NATIONAL INTEREST ASSOCIATIONS

National Associations promoting Trade, Investment, Transport,

Business & Professions

NATIONS STATESNational Governments

with full sets of powers and agencies; Major roles of taxation, defence,

service regulation & redistribution.

NATIONAL PROMOTIONAL GROUPSVoluntary groups to promote Social

Justice, Economic equity,Environmental quality,

Housing affordability and standards, etc.

REGIONAL INTEREST GROUPSRegional Chambers of Commerce,Special Interest Groups – Mining,

Fishing, Agriculture, etc

REGIONAL AGENCIESRegional governance of public

transport, regional parks,economic promotion, housing

management, strategic planning., environmental protection etc.

REGIONAL PROMOTION GROUPSHealth, Environment,

Social Justice, Culture,Education, Shelter &

Open Space federations

URBAN INTEREST GROUPSUrban Chambers of Commerce,

Urban Development Associations,Trade Union Councils

Rate Payers Associations

DISTRICT & CITY COUNCILSExecutive departments with full

ranges of funded programs of service and regulation; Representation.

and urban advocacy.

URBAN & DISTRICT PROMOTIONAL GROUPS

Associations to promote transport, environmental, character and protection, shelter, recreation,urban and ethnic culture, etc.

LOCAL INTEREST GROUPSProgress & Protection Associations,

Community Development Corporations

Bodies Corporate

LOCAL REPRESENTATIONLocal government Service Centers;

Community Boards,Neighbourhood Associations,Land & Watercare Committees

Community Associations.

COMMUNITY GROUPSParent Teacher Associations, Community action campaigns, Neighbourhood Watch

bodies, Walking buses, Car pooling,

Ramblers groups, Creek Management, City Farms

A Model for Integrated Governance & Delivery of Health Services

With national funding, state/provincial participation & local control(based on Ontario Proposals of 1993 & Commonwealth of Australia ones of 2010)

General Practice & Primary CareLocal doctors & dentistsNurse practitionersDiagnostic servicesPhysiotherapists and other specialists

Mental HealthEarly intervention servicesYouth friendly mental health programsMental health nurse trainingCommunity living support

Home, Aged & Community CareHome visit & support servicesOne stop shop & aged careWardened accommodationDay care centresHome meals services etc

District Hospital NetworksEmergency & chronic surgeryElective surgery & sub-acute bedsEpidemiology & treatmentScientific & medical research

District Health BoardsPrimary Care (GPs) Facilities Planning & LocationHospital Management Systems Assessment & ReferralHome Community & Aged Care Information & E-HealthMental Health Sectoral Coordination

NATIONALNational Commission on policies, standards & performanceNational funding & costingHuman resource development & trainingWellness promotion & community developmentElectronic informationParticipation & consultation systems

REGIONAL/LOCALDistrict Health Boards (Medicare locals)Voting memberships:

- Consumers- Caregivers- Volunteers and NGOs- Co-opted advocates and academics

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Conclusions

1. Contributions Representatives democracy is a tried and tested system which though not perfect, offers incomparable benefits of problem-solving, self adjustment and accountability

2. Operations Elected representatives organize and maintain this system, including thepublic planning function. However, without collaboration with community groups and voluntary activists and organizations, representative governments may tend to become bureaucratic, insensitive and Complacent

3. Advantages of Inclusive Governance & PlanningCollaborative planning and governance has merits of energy,

inventiveness and originality. But without oversight by representative systems, it lacks accountability and may become exclusive and equally introverted. Collaboration is needed within and between sectors of governance