Jaime Lee (University of Baltimore – School of Law) has posted Can You Hear Me Now?': Making Participatory Governance Work for the Poor (Harvard Law & Policy Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, Summer 2013, pp. 405-441) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Participatory governance engages people who are affected by a problem in the process of solving it. A participatory-governance approach to inner-city crime, for example, might include local residents in the process of designing a community-policing program. A community health center might place patients on its board of directors since they have unique knowledge about how the center can better serve those under its care.
In recent decades, courts, legislatures, administrative agencies, and other institutions all have used participatory-governance approaches to tackle complex problems of law and public policy. Legal scholars have observed participatory-governance principles at work in fields as diverse as financial regulation, public-education reform, and poverty law, and have identified certain principles as common to these initiatives, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the “New Governance” movement.
Among the core principles of the New Governance model are a commitment to decentralized problem solving by local stakeholders, and the ongoing adjustment of rules and policies informed by on-the-ground monitoring and feedback, also referred to as “learning by doing.” In both of these components of the New Governance process, stakeholder participation plays a critical part.
The New Governance model is often contrasted with the “command and control” governance model, which emphasizes centralized, top-down decision making and static rules. The New Governance model poses benefits as well as risks. Some scholars herald its potential to improve legal and policy outcomes, increase institutional accountability, empower marginalized groups, and further democratic ideals of self-determination and equality. Yet others worry that it can also be used to promote grave ills, such as the capture of public power by private interests, the evasion of accountability, and the deepening subordination of already marginalized communities.