Participation in planning and governance: closing the gap between satisfaction and expectation

Abstract

Background: Making and implementing decisions to improve long term sustainability, particularly in democratic countries, is a significant challenge. This is exacerbated when citizens' expectations of their relationship with government is significantly at odds with what they experience, since this is likely to further reduce their already low trust in government and its decision-making. Research in the USA has demonstrated a clear gap between citizens' expectations of their participation in government and their satisfaction with that participation. This finding inspired a research project in regional Western Australia to determine if a similar gap existed between citizens' expectations and experience of their relationship with government. Additionally, a public participation intervention was devised to determine whether the gap between citizens' expectations of, and experience with, governance could be reduced and whether the decisions made from such an intervention would be more implementable. To better reflect the partnership relationship citizens expected from government, 'deliberative democracy' initiatives were implemented to resolve the local government's budgeting challenges. Results: The results demonstrated that a similar gap to that in the USA was present in Western Australia community and the sample populations used in the partnership interventions. Further, the citizens' experience of deliberative democracy substantially reduced the gap between their expectations and experience of government participation. These case studies also revealed the existence and details of the nature of this partnership relationship between citizens and government as well as between the citizens themselves. Moreover, the tough budgetary decisions they made were implemented without public outcry. Conclusions: These case studies show a promising route to close the gap between citizen expectations and satisfaction with participation in government, as well as having the potential to increase the trust in government so necessary for advances in sustainability. Future research directions have been outlined to improve understanding of how these results could impact on sustainability efforts.

Repairing Political Trust for Practical Sustainability

“…Instead, they experience "consultation" or "informing," several levels lower on the ladder. This performance/expectation gap was detected in government officials as well as the general public in case studies in the US and Australia [55]. These results overlap with other authors who have found sometimes contradictory preferences for participation in surveys that force dichotomous choices on participants between pure citizen or pure technocratic government control [50,[60][61][62].…”

“…Thus, given the link between participation and trust in government, it is important to ask: What type of participation do citizens expect, and are governments living up to this expectation? Recent research in Australia and the US [55,56] using the tool of a modified Arnstein ladder [55,57,58] (see Figure 1) found a difference between the level of participation that citizens would ideally like and that which is being provided to them-known as the Arnstein gap [59].…”

“…research in Australia and the US [55,56] using the tool of a modified Arnstein ladder [55,57,58] (see Figure 1) found a difference between the level of participation that citizens would ideally like and that which is being provided to them-known as the Arnstein gap [59]. On average, citizens wish to have a relationship with government characterized as "partnership" on the Arnstein ladder.…”

“…In addition to having a good understanding of citizens' dissatisfaction with the status quo, there is also evidence that it is possible to meet expectations and close the Arnstein gap. Previous research on the case studies used later in this article analyzed a deliberative democracy intervention [79] aimed specifically at increasing the public participation level to "partnership" [55]. The Arnstein gap between expectation and reality closed by two-thirds in response to this intervention.…”

Principles for Integrating the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Cities

“…First, as noted previously, shared responsibility and authority are highly desirable in efforts to resolve wicked problems. Second, survey research from the USA [78] and Australia [79] has shown that citizens prefer a "partnership" relationship with their government rather than an increase in empowerment. They want neither complete control nor marginal consultation, but rather a decision-making process that is respectful of the strengths, resources and experience of ordinary people in combination with the experience and knowledge of elites, and the learning that goes with both.…”