Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era, co-authored by AmericaSpeaks’ Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Joe Goldman and David Stern on behalf of the IBM Center for the Business of Government. Report presents a comprehensive review of federal agency open government plans that have been proposed in response to President Obama’s Open Government Directive.
The report’s eight findings include the following:
Finding One: The Open Government Initiative and most federal agency plans have failed to offer standards for what constitutes high-quality public participation. While some agencies do include commitments to establish more robust measurements for participation, few plans include indicators that would measure meaningful progress toward becoming more participatory.
Finding Two: The public engagement activities described in open government plans display an admirable willingness to experiment with new tools and techniques to in- volve citizens with their decision-making processes. Nonetheless, even greater experi- mentation will be required to enable regular, meaningful public input opportunities.
Finding Three: While some agency plans describe how staff will respond to the public and include its input, most plans do not provide enough information to assess whether the public’s input will be incorporated into plans, programs, or decisions.
Finding Four: Open government plans include participatory activities on a wide vari- ety of topics and programs. Little is included in most plans, however, to ensure that agencies will continue to solicit public input on those issues that the public cares most about. Few clear examples exist of efforts to incorporate participatory activities throughout the agency.
Finding Five: Agencies appear to be moderately increasing the number of people who participate in public engagement initiatives. However, few plans include strate- gies to increase the diversity of those who participate.
Finding Six: Open government plans provide few descriptions of programs that educate the public regarding policy issues under consideration, although this may simply reflect a lack of detail in the plans themselves.
Finding Seven: Agencies use a variety of online and face-to-face forums. However, deliberative processes, in which citizens learn, express points of view, and have a chance to find common ground, are rarely incorporated.
Finding Eight: Many agencies are taking important initial steps to embed a culture of participation into their organizations, including recognition, training, and the cre- ation of new units and positions. These efforts should be celebrated, replicated, and expanded.
For more information: www.knightcomm.org/report-cites-need-for-more-public-engagement-in-open-government-proposals/
