At this critical moment for the financial stability of the Western democracies, one of the key points in public sector management seems to be the achievement of the results, expected by the community. The financial crisis has indeed produced a growing attention of the public opinion and the community on the use of public resources. In recent years there have been moments of strong protest against government choices, perceived in some cases closer to the "financial world" rather than the real citizens' needs. Therefore, in presence of those difficulties, development of innovative management tools for public administrations seems to be necessary. These tools should promote both the sustainability of public policies and community participation in the government choices: the application of this idea goes through the concept of participatory governance. This paper aims to analyze the possibilities of application of participatory governance: it is put into effect when the community becomes the central subject of the public policies, through the promotion of tools of direct democratic participation. In this context, participation should not be seen only as an answer to the users' voice, but also to make possible an effective implementation of "co-governance". In this way, a real involvement of stakeholders of the public policies is possible. The role of stakeholders, from this perspective, should not only be getting transparent and accountable information by public bodies, but must also assume a central role in decision-making and managerial processes. From this situation, the present work aims to determine whether participatory governance could be actually carried out for goals of social involvement and accountability to the citizenship. The empirical part of this work analyzes in depth this research purpose with reference to the context of Italian local municipalities, specifically the 119 provincial capitals. The involvement of municipalities was conducted by sending them a research questionnaire, with the aim to cover the research questions of this work. A sample of 49 municipalities took part in the research (the 41,18% of the universe). Finally, this paper, through the discussion of the most relevant theoretical topics and the analysis of the results of the empirical research, tries to answer to three research questions: 1. What is the level of diffusion of participatory governance in the Italian local municipalities? 2. How are these tools applied? / What are the most recurring difficulties of application? 3. What general consequences can be drawn about the possible contribution of participatory governance to achieve results under conditions of public sector stress?
Participatory Governance as a Tool for Monitoring Public Administrations: Evidences from Italian Local Municipalities
BADIA, Francesco
2013
Abstract
At this critical moment for the financial stability of the Western democracies, one of the key points in public sector management seems to be the achievement of the results, expected by the community. The financial crisis has indeed produced a growing attention of the public opinion and the community on the use of public resources. In recent years there have been moments of strong protest against government choices, perceived in some cases closer to the "financial world" rather than the real citizens' needs. Therefore, in presence of those difficulties, development of innovative management tools for public administrations seems to be necessary. These tools should promote both the sustainability of public policies and community participation in the government choices: the application of this idea goes through the concept of participatory governance. This paper aims to analyze the possibilities of application of participatory governance: it is put into effect when the community becomes the central subject of the public policies, through the promotion of tools of direct democratic participation. In this context, participation should not be seen only as an answer to the users' voice, but also to make possible an effective implementation of "co-governance". In this way, a real involvement of stakeholders of the public policies is possible. The role of stakeholders, from this perspective, should not only be getting transparent and accountable information by public bodies, but must also assume a central role in decision-making and managerial processes. From this situation, the present work aims to determine whether participatory governance could be actually carried out for goals of social involvement and accountability to the citizenship. The empirical part of this work analyzes in depth this research purpose with reference to the context of Italian local municipalities, specifically the 119 provincial capitals. The involvement of municipalities was conducted by sending them a research questionnaire, with the aim to cover the research questions of this work. A sample of 49 municipalities took part in the research (the 41,18% of the universe). Finally, this paper, through the discussion of the most relevant theoretical topics and the analysis of the results of the empirical research, tries to answer to three research questions: 1. What is the level of diffusion of participatory governance in the Italian local municipalities? 2. How are these tools applied? / What are the most recurring difficulties of application? 3. What general consequences can be drawn about the possible contribution of participatory governance to achieve results under conditions of public sector stress?I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
