Increasingly of late, government leaders and public officials are being called upon to build a stronger democracy in which public participation processes are effectively integrated into civic life, successfully engaging citizens. Unfortunately, despite what seems to be a growing resurgence in civic engagement activities via deliberative public meetings and new technology tools, laws at the local level currently do not reflect the capacities and engagement needs of 21st century citizens; in many instances, these laws are interfering with participatory practices considered to be widely effective and advantageous. For this reason, Governance Studies at Brookings Institute has been working for the past year on strengthening legal frameworks for public participation. Through their work, they’ve produced new tools, such as a model local ordinance and a model amendment to local legislation, that would ultimately build a more “supportive, productive, and equitable environment for public participation.”
On Wednesday, October 23rd, Governance Studies hosted a forum at Brookings on “reimagining the technological frameworks to strengthen and boost civic participation and citizen engagement.” Panel members from the working group presented the new tools assembled from their research and discussed questions surrounding ways to strengthen the legal framework for public participation. The audio from the panel session is available on Brookings’s website. The publication outlining the model ordinance and accompanying state amendment is available on the Deliberative Democracy Consortium website.
Interested parties in the Twittersphere likewise joined in on the conversation with the hashtag #participationlaw. See what @UIC_CivicSource and other individuals/organizations had to say on the trending topic.