This is an open access title available under the terms of a [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Exploring academic and policy thinking on e-participation, this book opens up the organizational and institutional 'black box' and provides new insights into how public administrations in 15 European states have facilitated its implementation.

The health of American democracy ultimately depends on our willingness and ability to work together as citizens and stakeholders in our republic. Government policies often fail to promote such collaboration. But if designed properly, they can do much to strengthen civic engagement. That is the central message of Carmen Sirianni's eloquent new book. Rather than encourage citizens to engage in civic activity, government often puts obstacles in their way. Many agencies treat citizens as passive clients rather than as community members, overlooking their ability to mobilize assets and networks to solve problems. Many citizen initiatives run up against rigid rules and bureaucratic silos, causing all but the most dedicated activists to lose heart. The unfortunate—and unnecessary—result is a palpable decline in the quality of civic life. Fortunately, growing numbers of policymakers across the country are figuring out how government can serve as a partner and catalyst for collaborative problem solving. Investing in Democracy details three such success stories: neighborhood planning in Seattle; youth civic engagement programs in Hampton, Virginia; and efforts to develop civic environmentalism at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The book explains what measures were taken and why they succeeded. It distills eight core design principles that characterize effective collaborative governance and concludes with concrete recommendations for federal policy.

Today's communities—whether they are currently strong, or struggling to survive—face difficult challenges if they want to be tomorrow's healthy, vibrant communities. The challenge for leaders and citizens of modern communities is not just to solve specific problems today. Their real challenge is to keep learning from their experience so they can keep improving their communities tomorrow. Results That Matter will provide a new governance framework for using valuable tools of community improvement—especially performance measurement and citizen engagement—to empower communities to achieve the outcomes their citizens most desire. Government and nonprofit managers will learn how to combine these tools in new ways, not only to achieve one-time improvement of their organizations and communities, but to foster continual community renewal and improvement. The benefits and practicality of the framework and related practices will be reinforced by case examples from 25 communities across the country. The book will offer "how to" guidance to public and nonprofit managers, including promising practices for effective communities, and new roles for citizens, community leaders, and managers.

Co-production and co-creation occur when citizens participate actively in delivering and designing the services they receive. It has come increasingly onto the agenda of policymakers, as interest in citizen participation has more generally soared. Expectations are high and it is regarded as a possible solution to the public sector’s decreased legitimacy and dwindling resources, by accessing more of society’s capacities. In addition, it is seen as part of a more general drive to reinvigorate voluntary participation and strengthen social cohesion in an increasingly fragmented and individualized society. "Co-Production and Co-Creation: Engaging Citizens in Public Services" offers a systematic and comprehensive theoretical and empirical examination of the concepts of co-production and co-creation and their application in practice. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest both to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regard to co-production and co-creation and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students in the fields of public administration, business administration, economics, political science, public management, political science service management, sociology and voluntary sector studies.

For almost a half a century, scholars and practitioners have debated what the connections should be between public administration and the public. Does the public serve principally as citizen-owners, those to whom administrators are responsible? Are members of the public more appropriately viewed as the customers of government? Or, in an increasingly networked world, do they serve more as the partners of public administrators in the production of public services? This book starts from the premise that the public comes to government not principally in one role but in all three roles, as citizens and customers and partners. The purpose of the book is to address the dual challenge that reality implies: (1) to help public administrators and other public officials to understand the complex nature of the public they face, and (2) to provide recommendations for how public administrators can most effectively interact with the public in the different roles. Using this comprehensive perspective, Citizen, Customer, Partner helps students, practitioners, and scholars understand when and how the public should be integrated into the practice of public administration. Most chapters in Citizen, Customer, Partner include multiple boxed cases that illustrate the chapter’s content with real-world examples. The book concludes with an extremely useful Appendix that collects and summarizes the 40 Design Principles – specific advice for public organizations on working with the public as customers, partners, and citizens.

Jordan is undertaking ambitious decentralization reforms to place citizens at the heart of local policies and services. This review analyses the main gaps in the current needs assessment process, which aims to mainstream a participatory approach for the design of local development plans and budgetary allocations through a yearly collection and assessment of citizens’ needs.

Engaging Authority: Citizenship and Political Community aims to explore how authority is entailed in different versions of citizenship and political community. Who or what claims authority in the name of “a people,” and to what effect? What kind and scope of authority is claimed? And who is held to be part of such a people”? Engaging Authority brings together scholars from anthropology, constitutional studies, cultural studies, politics, political theory, sociology, and philosophy in a collaborative project to develop a multifaceted understanding of citizenship in political community. The volume begins with the premise that to describe or identify oneself as a citizen entails a particular relationship to authority. Citizens are understood to be members of a community which we consider “political” in that members are invoked, and may also be involved, in the business of governing. How does this relationship function? How is community invoked by those exercising authority, and in what senses do citizens partake in its exercise? In this volume, the authors explore different forms of the citizen’s relationship to authority in political community, across and beyond the variations that usually concern scholars, such as the self-governing people, nation-states, popular sovereignty, and democratic citizenship.

This book provides a state-of-the-art assessment of citizen participation practice and research in the United States. With contributions from a stellar group of scholars, it provides readers an overview of a field at the heart of democratic governance. Individual chapters trace shifts in participation philosophy and policy, examine trends at different government levels, analyze technology/participation interactions, identify the participation experiences of minority populations, and explore the impact of voluntary organizations on this topic. A five-chapter section illustrates innovative cases. Another section explores the role of various methodologies in advancing participation research. The scope, depth, and timeliness of the coverage fills two voids in the public administration literature. First, the book provides a unique collection of articles for graduate courses in citizen participation and democratic governance. The volume also offers an excellent compendium for researchers who are at the frontline of participation research and practice.

Science for Policy Handbook provides advice on how to bring science to the attention of policymakers. This resource is dedicated to researchers and research organizations aiming to achieve policy impacts. The book includes lessons learned along the way, advice on new skills, practices for individual researchers, elements necessary for institutional change, and knowledge areas and processes in which to invest. It puts co-creation at the centre of Science for Policy 2.0, a more integrated model of knowledge-policy relationship. Covers the vital area of science for policymaking Includes contributions from leading practitioners from the Joint Research Centre/European Commission Provides key skills based on the science-policy interface needed for effective evidence-informed policymaking Presents processes of knowledge production relevant for a more holistic science-policy relationship, along with the types of knowledge that are useful in policymaking

Civic Education and Competences for Engaging Citizens in Democracies Murray Print University of Sydney and Dirk Lange Leibniz University of Hannover What competences do young citizens need to be considered as active and engaged in the context of a modern Europe? In 2011 an invited research symposium of leading civic and political educators, social scientists and educational administrators from Europe met in Hannover, Germany to consider this key concern facing Europe today. In examining the above question the symposium addressed two significant issues: 1. Identify key competencies required for active citizenship of young people in Europe of the future. 2. Translate those competencies to school-based activities in the form of curricular and pedagogical strategies. The group addressed these questions through discussion in the symposium and through previously prepared papers. Subsequently the group participated in a modified Delphi Technique to identify the key competences and the final competences are presented in this book. The chapters of this book represent the contribution of the participants before, during and after the symposium with opportunities for review and reflection. Murray Print and Dirk Lange are professors from the University of Sydney and Leibniz University of Hannover respectively and are national leaders in civics and citizenship education in their respective countries. They have brought together a group of leading European civic and citizenship educators from different academic fields to explore the key issue and to identify the competences for young people to become active and engaged European citizens.