1. Building Capacity for Participatory Democracy
@OliverEscobar
What Works Scotland’s remit is: Using evidence to transform public services for all of Scotland’s communities to flourish
Our work is guided by the key principles from the Christie Commission

2. 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
This will be an overview of key ideas and challenges re PD –no time for digging deep into the large banks of evidence on the matter, but hopefully this will serve as a hook for future sessions in which we can discuss existing evidence in more detail and what it means for your field of practice.

3. 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

4. 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
To be clear, PD can work in tandem with Representative Democracy, and actually many argue that they can strengthen each other

5. 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

6. Key challenges in organising participatory processes
Inclusion and diversity
Quality of dialogue and deliberation
Impact: clear link to policy and decision making

7. The growing field of Democratic Innovation: Building institutions for participatory democracy
There are hundreds of democratic innovations developed in the last 3 decades around the world. See
Here I use 2 examples focussed on face-to-face participation, although there are also numerous innovations in digital participation. 7

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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

11. 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’
Incentives to become informed?
Evidence from mini-publics show that citizens can grasp complex issues when they are supported through a learning phase, and thus capable of informed and considered judgements
Public apathy? A myth if we look at indicators such as the level of voluntary work across Scotland, the prolifereation of civic networks and social movements or the 84% turnout in the referendum

12. The question at the heart of participatory democracy …
What kind of citizen are citizens invited to be?
In participatory democracy citizens are invited to be decision makers. Arguably, that is partly what made the Referendum so engaging –but that was a period of EXTRA-ordinary democracy. Now that we are back to the everyday business of ORDINARY democracy, too often the role that citizens are invited to play is that of occasional voters, complainers, consultees, or spectators.
Are our institutions ready to accommodate civic aspirations for extra-ordinary/participatory democracy?

13. At 3 levels: Institutional Professional Community
What capacity needs to be built to enable participatory democracy?
At 3 levels: Institutional Professional Community

14. 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)

15. 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)

16. 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

17. 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

19. Thank you!
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