Research: Synergy between citizenship and public administration: concepts and tools for a policy co-decision-making process
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in involving citizens in the sphere of public policy definition and development. Tools that – in various ways – formalize the contribution of actors external to the administration have gained increasing relevance in sectors related to activities of general interest, including (e.g.) welfare management, urban planning, and community development. Underlying this growing legitimacy, which likely corresponds to an incremental exercise of devices, we may find recognition of the added value that comes from the diversity of perspectives, knowledge, and values of active citizenship. And this – we could say – according to the most ‘positive’ of hypotheses: that is, that participation practices are implemented to enable concrete inclusion of people’s concerns into decision-making and public management processes. Not, therefore, as merely symbolic policies made by the administrations themselves. Citizen participation in defining and implementing public policies has become essential to promote inclusive and accountable democracy. The concept of policy co-decision-making process represents an approach that aims to involve both citizens and public administration in a shared decision-making procedure, in order to ensure more transparent, responsible, efficient, and fair governance. Devices that can be counted in this category are configured as functional for the promotion of participatory democracy, making accessible practices in which the main positions of the relevant community on the issue are involved, suitable for dealing with the complex challenges of contemporary society. Thoroughly understanding the nature and value of such institutions means triggering virtuous processes aimed at the development of more balanced, sustainable, and shared solutions and measures, that are the result of greater participation and collaboration among different actors in the public policy arena. The attention and growing interest in collaborative practices are the outcome of a multiplicity of variables, among which we can mention an emerging need to face more complex and interrelated collective problems, that are part of a rapidly changing society. The research is sustained on the observation that the concepts related to the theoretical categories of reference, as well as the areas of concrete application, show many risks and difficulties nowadays: both from an abstract point of view, as there is not total clarity in the definition and categorization of the tools of participatory democracy and shared administration; and from a pragmatic point of view, where one can find at the various levels (from national to local) a lack of control of the devices in an operational sense. This frequent disorientation within administrations extends throughout the public policy lifecycle, from the structuring of the institutional agenda to an evaluation that – unfortunately – is often not conducted because it is considered ‘ancillary’. In light of what has been said, the research aims to achieve the following objectives: a) to identify and conduct a survey of institutes, devices, and techniques that may belong to the spheres of participatory democracy and shared administration; b) to punctually define and model these instruments, through reference literature, formal regulations in our system, and identified best practices; c) to investigate the institutionalization and integration methods of participatory forms in political and administrative structures; d) to develop toolkits for the analysis and evaluation of these institutions, preferring a joint treatment of them whenever possible. All this considering other essential coordinates: e) to deepen and refine what has already been developed for co-design and participatory processes, especially regarding the Index of Citizenship Participation in Public Policy Making; and to expand the spatial horizon of research, investigating the study objects both f) in other regions in Italy, g) and in territories outside Italy, in order to structure a comparative study on participatory and collaborative practices. Keywords: deliberation; participatory democracy; shared administration; co-creation and co-production; institutionalization of participatory practices; evaluation activity