Description - Putting Citizens First by Evert A. Lindquist
This
book explores the ways in which governments are putting citizens first in
their policy-making endeavours. Making citizens the focus of policy
interventions and involving them in the delivery and design is for many
governments a normative ideal; it is a worthy objective and sounds easy to
achieve. But the reality is that putting citizens at the centre of
policy-making is hard and confronting. Are governments really serious in
their ambitions to put citizens first? Are they prepared for the challenges
and demands such an approach will demand? Are they prepared to commit the
time and resources to ensure genuine engagement takes place and that
citizens’ interests are considered foremost? And, more importantly, are
governments prepared for the trade-offs, risks and loss of control such
citizen-centric approaches will inevitably involve?
The book is divided into five parts:
- setting the scene: The evolving
landscape for citizen engagement
- drivers for change: Innovations
in citizen-centric governance
- case studies in land management
and Indigenous empowerment
- case studies in fostering
community engagement and connectedness
- case studies engaging with
information technology and new media.
While some chapters question how far governments can go in engaging with
citizens, many point to successful examples of actual engagement that
enhanced policy experiences and improved service delivery. The various
authors make clear that citizen engagement is not restricted to the domain of
service delivery, but if taken seriously affects the ways governments conduct
their activities across all agencies. The implications are enormous, but the
benefits to public policy may be enormous too.
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