Participatory and collaborative governance

Abstract

This chapter suggests that governance can be improved by active collaboration with citizens in decision-making processes. Its focus on structured exercises of participation and deliberation is influenced deeply by the emergence of theories of deliberative democracy (Chapter 1). In suggesting that government decision-making can be improved through more deliberative state–citizen interaction, it also argues for institutional change (see Chapter 2). Whether citizens or governments actually conform to the norms and expectations of deliberation outlined in this chapter is a critical issue that could be explored through behaviouralist approaches (Chapter 3), while the growing discourse of deliberation and collaboration provides fertile ground for exploration using discourse theory and post-structuralist approaches. Do collaborative techniques establish policy ‘truths’ that exclude other possibilities (see Chapter 5)? Critical theorists (Chapter 4) would ask whether collaboration addresses deep issues of power inequality any more effectively than other institutions and processes.