Public engagement in national decision-making offers support to Government openness and transparency agenda and the Big Society

We have just published a Sciencewise-ERC insight paper by Involve looking at the public’s views on engagement in national decision-making. The paper suggests that inviting members of the public into structured spaces for holding dialogue on complex policy issues is an important contribution to the Government’s move towards a more transparent and open way of governing and the Big Society.

The paper finds evidence that members of the public have the ability to engage with, and contemplate, large quantities of complex information and to provide detailed responses that enhance governmental decisions. Responses from participants of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) sponsored public consultation on hybrid and chimera embryos showed that effective dialogue can help increase trust in the ability of public bodies to govern effectively; in this instance the HFEA was seen as acting in a responsible and accountable way. The paper also finds evidence that such structured dialogue can help to promote the very citizen engagement that the Big Society will need; namely a move towards far more autonomous citizen action. This type of dialogue provides an opportunity to support the development of democratic capabilities in the citizens involved.

While engaging the public in national decision-making processes can open up benefits to Government, this is only true under certain circumstances. This paper draws out key recommendations that need to be met if these benefits are to be realised. What can be seen throughout is that dialogue gives Government the opportunity to ensure maximum support, confidence and buy-in from public participants, but only if the process, design and mechanisms through which engagement is delivered are in line with public aspirations. Principles, such as those devised and used by Sciencewise-ERC, can be helpful in ensuring that this is the case.

Visit the Sciencewise-ERC website for details of the insight paper.

Read the related blog by Simon Burall, Feeding back: strengthening the relationship between people and power, which is the latest guest blog on the Sciencewise-ERC website.

Make your contributions to this topic on the Sciencewise-ERC forum by commenting on the question; is there a role for structured public dialogue within the Big Society?