| Abstract: | Initiatives to encourage and stimulate the involvement of citizensbut also various societal organizations in decision making canbe seen in a wide variety of European countries. Citizen panels,citizen charters, new types of participation, and other formsare being used to increase the influence of citizens on decisionmaking and to improve the relation between citizens and electedpoliticians. In the Netherlands a lot of local governments haveexperimented with interactive decision making that is enhancingthe influence of citizens and interest groups on public policymaking. The main motives to involve stakeholders in interactivedecision making are to diminish the veto power of various societalactors by involving them in decision making, improve the qualityof decision making by using the information and solutions ofvarious actors, and bridge the perceived growing cleavage betweencitizens and elected politicians. In this article six casesare evaluated. The cases are compared on three dimensions: thenature and organization of participation, the way the processis managed (process management), and the relation with formaldemocratic institutions. These organizational features (in termsof both formal organization and actual performance) are comparedwith the results of the decision-making processes in the sixcases. The article shows that the high expectations of interactivedecision making are not always met. It also shows that managingthe interactions—called process management in networktheory—is very important for achieving satisfactory outcomes. |
