1. Public Administration Department
Public Deliberation & Participation: Concepts, Values, & Process Design
Tina Nabatchi, Ph.D.
Public Administration Department
April 13, 2011

2. “…the most important point of excellence which any form of government can possess is to promote the virtue and intelligence of the people themselves.”
John Stuart Mill,
On Representative Government

3. Civic Engagement
Civic Engagement involves virtually any activities that concern public issues.
Civic Engagement can happen in many places:
Civil Society
Electoral Arenas
Administrative Arenas
Civic Engagement can take many forms:
Adversarial → Collaborative → Consensus
One-Way → Two-Way → Deliberative Communication
Information Exchange → Democratic Decisionmaking

4. Public/Citizen Participation
Public Participation: the processes by which public concerns, needs, and values are incorporated into governmental decisions
Indirect Participation: citizens select a representative to make decisions for them
Examples: Voting and Interest group activities
Direct Participation: citizens are personally involved and actively engaged in decision making
Examples: Advisory committees and Participatory decision making

5. Deliberative Participation
Public Deliberation: participatory models designed to help citizens form their own political voice through the act of reasoned discussion
Deliberative Democracy: Public decisions should be made through reasoned discussion and collective judgment of free and equal citizens
Requires reason-giving
Must take place in public and be accessible to all/some citizens affected by decisions
Seeks to produce a decision that is binding for some period of time
Is dynamic and keeps open the option for continuing dialogue 5

6. Deliberative Democracy Processes
Similarities
Focus on action
Appeal to values
Absence of pre-existing commitments
Mutuality of focus
Free exchange of knowledge and information
Occurs within small groups (though many involve thousands of people)
Differences
Who participates
How information is exchanged
How decisions are made
How deliberation is linked to policy or public action
Examples
AmericaSpeaks 21st Century Town Meeting ®
National Issues Forum (NIF)
Public (or Civic) Journalism
Deliberative Polling®
Study Circles

7. Core Values for Public Participation
The public should have a say in decisions that affect their lives.
Participation should include the promise that the public's contribution will influence the decision. How the public’s input will affect (or has affected) the decision should be communicated.
The participation process should focus on and communicate the interests and needs of participants.
The participation process should seek out and facilitate the involvement of those who are potentially affected by a decision.
The participation process should provide participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.
Adapted from the International Association for Public Participation (

8. Advocates and Critics’ Views
The arguments for participation
Intrinsic value of participation
Instrumental value of participation
Citizens
Communities
Policy and Governance
The arguments against participation
Transaction costs
Constraints imposed on officials
Negative impacts on citizens and groups
Risky decision making

9. Why participation? Four Broad Goals
Exploration: encouraging people to learn more about themselves, their community, or an issue, and possibly discover innovative solutions
Conflict Transformation: resolving conflicts, fostering personal healing and growth, and improving relations among groups.
Collaborative Action: empowering people to solve complicated problems and take responsibility for the solution(s).
Decision Making: improving public knowledge on issues and influencing public decisions and policies

10. Spectrum of Public Participation
Adapted from the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)
Increasing Level of Shared Decision Authority
Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
Fact Sheets
Web Sites
Open Houses
Workshops
Deliberative Polling
Delegated
Decision Making
Deliberative
Democracy
Public Comment
Focus Groups
Surveys
Public Meetings
Citizen Advisory
Committees
Consensus-Building
Participatory
Decision Making
Engagement Processes
Participation Processes
Democratic Processes
One-Way Communication
Two-Way Communication
Deliberative Communication

11. Reciprocity: Actions Required of Agencies and Citizens
Actions by Agencies/Organizations
Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
Inquire
Propose/ Express Opinions
Discuss/ Deliberate
Take Part on Continuing Basis
Assume Respon-sibility
Actions by Citizens

12. What Level of Participation is Right?
It depends.
How complex is the issue?
What kind of participation is required for the decision to have legitimacy?
How quickly does a decision need to be reached?
What is the mandate?
What are the political realities?
What is the budget?

13. Why Agencies Retain (at least some) Decision-Making Authority
Agencies are constrained by mandates.
Agencies must operate within the limits of the law.
Agencies must meet contractual obligations.
Agencies must pay the costs of the project.
Agencies must balance competing needs and interests.
Agencies must retain accountability
Agencies MUST promote
the Public Interest

14. Planning for Participation
Decision Analysis
Clarify the decision being made.
Decide whether and why public participation is needed.
Specify the planning or decision making steps and schedule.
Process Planning
Specify what needs to be accomplished with the public at each step of the decision making process.
Identify the internal and external stakeholders.
Identify techniques to use at each stage of the process.
Link the techniques in an integrated plan.
Implementation Planning
Plan the implementation of individual public participation activities.
Evaluation Planning
Plan the evaluation of multiple aspects of the all public participation activities.

15. Design Choices (Adapted from Fung 2003)
Why do your want/need public participation? What do you hope to learn or accomplish?
Are you seeking to explore an issue? Address a conflict? Develop collaborative action?
Make a decision? – Why is public input necessary for this decision?
Subject and Scope of Participation
What issue will citizens consider?
What will be the extent of their consideration?
Do citizens have a comparative advantage over politicians, administrators, organized interests, etc.?
Do you need information about public preferences and values?
Do you want a citizen assessment of policy impacts?
Do you want citizens to monitor accountability?

16. Design Choices The Stakes Level of Shared Decision Authority
Why will citizens consider the issue?
Cold issue: low stakes, dispassionate, no fixed positions
Hot issue: high stakes, passionate, fixed positions
Level of Shared Decision Authority
How will results of participation influence decision?
Where on the spectrum will your public participation forum fall?
Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate, Empower
How will participants be informed about influence?
Type of Participatory Mechanism
Face-to-Face: large group meetings or small table discussions?
On-line: blogs, wikis, social media tools

17. Design Choices Participant Selection Participant Recruitment
Stakeholder Participation: open only to those who have an interest because of their job or involvement in a formal group or organization
Public Participation: open to all residents
Participant Recruitment
Voluntary Self-Selection
Targeted Demographic Recruitment
Structural Incentives 17

18. Design Choices Communication Mode Informed Participation
One-way communication (to or from agency?)
Two-way communication
Deliberative communication
Large group, small group, or online?
Consider issues of facilitation
Consider how all participants will have a voice
Consider issues of information aggregation/analysis
Informed Participation
What information do people need to participate in an effective way?
All informational materials (e.g., expert panels, presentations, guidebooks, issue books) MUST be neutral, objective, and balanced.

19. Design Choices (Adapted from Fung 2003)
Recurrence and Iteration
One-time event?
Long-term, ongoing endeavor?
Monitoring
Is there long-term monitoring of results, actions, or implementation?
Will monitoring yield public learning, accountability, transparency?
Evaluation
How will you conduct a process evaluation?
How will you conduct an impact evaluation?
Who is the audience for your evaluation efforts?
How will you share the results of your evaluations?

20. Design Issues Decisions about design choices should be made:
In an integrative fashion
In consideration of any mandates, laws, rules, regulations, etc.
In consideration of system context and conditions (i.e., budget, human and other resources, political realities, logistical constraints, etc.)

21. Additional Resources
Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC):
Global Voices:
LogoLink:
International Association for Public Participation (IAP2):
National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD):