<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>At a time when governments are grappling with increasingly complex problems, state-led participatory processes that facilitate citizen and community voice in decision-making and policymaking have become more common at national, regional and local government levels. In Ireland, citizen participation in government has achieved prominence in the last thirty years with the introduction of social partnership and more recent establishment of multiple and diverse forms of participatory governance, nationally, regionally and locally. This paper offers a critique of the evolution and operation of local participatory governance in Ireland. The paper argues that to be effective, participatory governance requires strong and inclusive participatory processes at all levels of government, a clear ideological and policy basis, a coherent ‘joined-up’ programme and receptive institutional foundations.</p></abstract>

At a time when governments are grappling with increasingly complex problems, state-led participatory processes that facilitate citizen and community voice in decision-making and policymaking have become more common at national, regional and local government levels. In Ireland, citizen participation in government has achieved prominence in the last thirty years with the introduction of social partnership and more recent establishment of multiple and diverse forms of participatory governance, nationally, regionally and locally. This paper offers a critique of the evolution and operation of local participatory governance in Ireland. The paper argues that to be effective, participatory governance requires strong and inclusive participatory processes at all levels of government, a clear ideological and policy basis, a coherent ‘joined-up’ programme and receptive institutional foundations.

Participatory governance in Ireland: Institutional innovation and the quest for joined-up thinking

Administration

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

At a time when governments are grappling with increasingly complex problems, state-led participatory processes that facilitate citizen and community voice in...

Participatory governance in Ireland: Institutional innovation and the quest for joined-up thinking

Published Online: Aug 28, 2020

Page range: 1 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/admin-2020-0013

Keywords
Participatory governance, citizen participation, community participation, local government, policymaking

© 2020 Catherine Forde, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Participatory governance in Ireland: Institutional innovation and the quest for joined-up thinking

Published Online: Aug 28, 2020

Page range: 1 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/admin-2020-0013

KeywordsParticipatory governance, citizen participation, community participation, local government, policymaking

© 2020 Catherine Forde, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Participatory governance, citizen participation, community participation, local government, policymaking