Direct Citizen Participation: Building a Theory

Abstract

The subject of citizen participation has a long lineage dating back to the Greek city-states. Two questions have been central to its history: Who is a citizen and how should the citizen participate in governance? Responses to these questions have varied depending on the political and administrative theory one champions. Those who value indirect citizenship participation, or representative democracy, cite the dangers, costs, and logistical difficulties of involving all members of a society. Those who value direct citizenship participation cite increased state legitimacy and the benefits of social learning when all citizens are involved. The data on citizen participation in the U.S. come from “experiments” in different programs (e.g. Model Cities) and different sectors (e.g. education, social services, health). They also come from explorations of citizen participation at the individual, group, inter-group, and network levels. Citizens participate as individuals when they vote, respond to surveys and attend hearings. Citizens participate as group members when they join advocacy and voluntary groups and participate in citizen panels and advisory committees. Citizens participate as members of large groups when they join stakeholder collaborations that bring together competing interests groups, administrators, and politicians to craft and implement public policy. And citizens participate as members in a network, especially those reliant on the Internet and information technology, when they push issues on the political agenda that have been neglected or avoided by formal authority. These experiments and their assessments have produced a few models and frameworks, but not a welldeveloped theory of citizen participation. Drawing on forty years of research, this paper lays out the basic elements of a theory, specifying the units and levels of analysis, and the conditions under which citizen participation is likely to be effective.