Social Choice and Citizen Participation: Bringing Democratic Theory to Public Administration

Abstract

Recent years have seen a rapid growth of interest in the inclusion of citizen participation in the work of public institutions, advancing a well-established literature in public administration, which aims to reconcile the goals of public bureaucracies with those of democracy. Consequently, a rich body of literature and empirical work has emerged, which explores the extent to which the aspirations of the literature are reflected in practical experiences of participatory initiatives. In this article, we argue that this literature would benefit from a deeper connection with democratic theory. In particular, we suggest that our ability to make assessments over the functioning of citizen participation initiatives would be strengthened by a closer engagement with the contributions made by social choice theorists. We aim to promote a constructive dialogue, suggesting that considering social choice perspectives in analyses of participation might allow the claims made by proponents of citizen involvement in public administration to be strengthened considerably.