Disclaimer: I am a founding member of the European Institute for Public Participation and currently work fo it as a project leader.
In January 2009 we have founded a new institution, the European Institute for Public Participation. We have set up a website at www.participationsinstitute.org, but currently there is very little information online.
The EIPP It is the successor of the Partnership for Public Participation for which I worked as a freelancer in 2008. It is a non-profit organisation under German law (an eingetragener Verein, or e.V.).
The goal of the EIPP is to establish public participation – and by that we mean the involvement of citizens in policy-making – as a more normal practice in our democracies. We are convinced that public participation can act as a remedy for the growing dissatisfaction of citizens with politics (and policies). Public participation can give people a more direct say in issues that they care about. They can make their voice heard at the political level.
This potential, however, can only be realised when a number of conditions are met (see also my previous post). Firstly, the participation process must be well thought through and extremely well implemented. This places a high burden on the shoulders of organisers of such processes. Nonetheless, only well organised processes are able to realise their potential. Deliberation – a central element of politically-oriented public participation – needs t a clear framwork within which it can take place.
Politicians and other addressees are called for collaboration as well. Only when they pledge themselves in some way to take up the outcomes of particiaption processes, will public participation be able to fulfil its promise. Given the high requirements for the organisation of public participation processes, they place a rather high demand on the participants. Consequently, when the participants’ contribution is not taken up, they will be less or not willing to participate in future participation processes.
We at the EIPP are convinced that only the careful analysis of participation process can help us better understand the potential and limitation of participation processes. Based on these insights, we aim to advise policy-makers and participation organisers about the best way forward to attain the goals they aim at.
For this task we can draw on the varied experience of the people working for the EIPP. They are a mixed group with different backgrounds, ranging from organisational psychology to management standard development to political science and politics.
We are always looking for new people to work with, new projects to work on. If you are interested in learning more please send me an email to info(a)participationinstitute.org.
