Participation requests : a democratic innovation to unlock the door of public services?

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Bennett, Hayley and Escobar, Oliver and Hill O’Connor, Clementine and Plotnikova, Evgeniya and Steiner, Artur (2022) Participation requests : a democratic innovation to unlock the door of public services? Administration & Society, 54 (4). pp. 605-628. ISSN 1552-3039 (https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211037597)

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Abstract

Democracies are under pressure and public administrations must evolve to accommodate new forms of public participation. Participation processes may reproduce or disrupt existing power inequalities. Through a multi-method empirical study of "Participation Requests," a new legislative policy tool to open up public services in Scotland, this article addresses an empirical gap on governance-driven democratic innovations (DIs). We use Young's distinction of external and internal inclusion and find Participation Requests replicate the pitfalls of traditional forms of associative democracy. We contend that DIs should be co-produced between institutions and communities to bring a participatory and deliberative corrective to temper bureaucratic logics.

ORCID iDs

Bennett, Hayley, Escobar, Oliver, Hill O’Connor, Clementine ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1693-1697, Plotnikova, Evgeniya and Steiner, Artur;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)