ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

The participatory turn: how and why do regulators engage citizens in decision-making?

Democracy
Public Administration
Regulation
Eva Heims
University of York
Eva Heims
University of York

Abstract

Regulatory agencies across different sectors, countries and jurisdiction are increasingly engaging citizens in their decision-making. This challenges the received wisdom about the technocratic nature of the contemporary regulatory state. In participatory forms of decision-making, experts need to justify how they take decisions in relation to other forms of knowledge, such as the lived experience of people affected by regulatory decisions. This calls into question the legitimacy of supposedly independent, expertise-based forms of governing markets and protecting health and safety. This paper proposes a larger research project that aims to study the causes and consequences of these changes. We suggest that regulatory agencies adopt such mechanisms when under reputational pressure but that, ironically, the novel mechanisms make them more vulnerable to subsequent public and political pressure. This raises fundamental questions about the future of the regulatory state. To explore these propositions, we propose a cross-country, cross-sector study of participatory processes used by regulatory agencies.