Citizen Participation

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Decision making in public organizations can range from how to carry out everyday tasks to value questions that can shape people’s lives for years to come. It is important in these situations to ask for public input to make sure that the best decision is made for everyone who will be affected. Citizen participation in government has been practiced in the United States since its conception, the forums for the participation have changed but citizen input is still a vital part of the decision making process in American public administration.

Citizen participation, or public input, is defined as the participation of civil society (both individual citizens and institutionalized actors) in the local decision making process”. This can also be expanded beyond the local level to state and federal level public organizations. This process allows decision makers to hear and consider multiple opinions on matters that will affect the public. According to the Environment and Natural Resources Institute at the University of Alaska Anchorage, “public policy is a mixture of our values and opinions, technical knowledge and abilities, and our political systems.” It is precisely the mixture of values and opinions that make citizen participation necessary; it is the goal of citizen participation “to create structures to handle complex public issues in systematic, manageable and less emotional ways.” Public input provides a place for everyone to work constructively together.

There are many different types of citizen participation. One popular type is the forum. In the forum setting there is usually a set time and place for interested parties to meet, there will usually be a presentation addressing the problem and intended solution. After the present...

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Koht, Peter. "City of Santa Cruz Offers Blueprint for Solving CA Budget Crisis with Social Media." 9-8-2009.http://www.gov2expo.com/gov2expo2009/public/schedule/detail/10344 (accessed 3-3-2010).

Re Source Solutions, "Public Decision Making: Government's Changing Role." http://edit.uaa.alaska.edu/resourcesolutions/upload/Gov%20Changing%20Role.pdf (accessed 3-3-2010).

"Santa Cruz City Budget." http://budget.santacruzcityca.gov/

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