Suchergebnisse

Over the last few decades, an increasing number of governments have promoted the setting up of so called "mini-publics" to integrate policymaking processes in an attempt to improve policy decisions. This phenomenon has highlighted the importance of mini-publics to become fully integrated in our democratic systems. By presenting the findings of empirical research conducted on 29 local mini-publics, this paper aims to explain how mini-public design elements can affect the capacity of mini-publics to trigger or hinder two key integration mechanisms: the social legitimation mechanism and the institutional collaboration mechanism.

AbstractEmergency policies are among the most challenging policies that policy makers have to deal with, because of their extreme seriousness, the lack of time, and the high uncertainties that are involved. Policy analyses have demonstrated that good structural and organizational strategies are important, but not sufficient, to systematically guarantee a high level of resiliency in response processes. Some scholars have therefore suggested the need to verify whether individual cognitive and relational mechanisms can contribute to explaining the different levels of resiliency that emerge in emergency response processes. From such a perspective, this article presents the findings of a research that was aimed at testing whether emotional mechanisms matter. The affect infusion model was used to provide the analytical framework that was considered to identify the evidence necessary for the empirical research, and the 'most similar system design' was applied to select and compare two couples of emergency response processes with similar contextual, structural and organizational features, but different levels of resiliency. The empirical research was conducted from April 2020 to February 2021, through periods of job shadowing and semi-structured interviews with personnel from the public and private organizations involved in the response processes. The research has substantially corroborated the hypothesis and has highlighted that, despite very similar contextual, structural and organizational conditions, a negative emotional mechanism, triggered by fear and anxiety, was pervasive among managers involved in the two lower-resiliency emergency response processes, while a positive emotional mechanism, triggered by pride, was dominant among managers involved in the two lower-resiliency processes.

Over the last decades, European cities have been facing serious constraints. In particular, decreasing transfers from central governments, the introduction of domestic 'Stability pacts' and the economic crisis have significantly challenged the capacity of local governments to address societal issues. Within this context, local governments have tried to find new ways by establishing collaborations with a wide range of private actors, including non-profit organizations and the civil society as a whole. Among these private actors, big philanthropic organizations are gaining prominence, acting as public policy supporters and policy makers. In particular, those philanthropic organizations, which focus the operating activity on single communities, are emerging as potential key actors in local governance, thanks to their capacity to concentrate resourses and efforts in specific and limited territories. For this new emerging role, a recent debate on their impact on local policy making has raised in the last years. This paper aims at presenting the findings of a comparative analysis on the impact that some of the world's biggest philanthropic organizations have produced in two Italian urban contexts. In particular, the comparative analysis of these two cases had the aim of testing a major thesis: the impact of philanthropic foundations on local policy making varies in relation to the consolidated mode of governance within which they operate.

A definition of political inclusion is proposed, & its four basic dimensions are characterized: (1) individualism (ie, one person, one vote), (2) public interaction & discussion, (3) political nonprofessionalism, & (4) pragmatism. Several forms of political inclusion practiced in Western democracies today are described, including citizen juries, consensus conferences, urban planning cells, town meetings, participatory budgets, community dialogs, & other. They are divided into two groups, each representing a specific type of political inclusion: deliberative inclusion & civicracy. The objectives of each type is specified, & the agenda, legitimation criteria, & internal & external aims of deliberative inclusion & civicracy are compared. The effectiveness of each type of political inclusion is assessed, recognizing both their advantages & limitations. It is concluded that both kinds of inclusion contribute to democratization processes by reducing conflicts & political/civic alienation, while increasing social capital & the accountability & responsiveness of local governments. To be effective, however, they require careful planning & impartial design to avoid the pitfalls of social inequality, political manipulation, or the trivialization of political agenda. Tables, References. Z. Dubiel

The urban regime theory has placed the decisional power of urban policy makers in the foreground. From this perspective, enduring governing coalitions can in fact manage to change the consolidated urban policy mix to foster great changes in the social and economic context. The urban regime theory labels this capacity "power to." Although this higher capacity has frequently been affirmed, the literature has neglected to look at the framing mechanisms and the policy-making processes that allow a new agenda to emerge and be implemented. The present article has the aim of addressing this matter and in particular of trying to answer two main questions: (1) If an incubation phase lays the foundations for the emergence of a new policy agenda, how does this process take place? (2) Is the new agenda a by-product of sectorial policy negotiations or is it the output of a collective effort? The findings of an in-depth analysis of a case study are presented and discussed to address these questions.

Over the last few decades, deliberative minipublics have been used as inclusive and innovative practices to integrate traditional policy-making. Because of their policy-oriented aim, but also owing to the usually not legally-binding nature, some scholars have recently pointed out the importance of understanding how and to what extent they actually manage to influence the decisions of public authorities, especially when they deal with highly controversial issues, such as locally unwanted land use or ethic matters. This article has the aim of offering a contribution in this direction, by presenting the findings of a comparative analysis of two deliberative processes promoted by public authorities to integrate decision-making in order to deal with highly controversial issues. The two processes had significantly different impacts on the final policies. The analysis, conducted by means of ethnographic and qualitative methods, has shown that how the minipublics were designed and how deliberation was put in practice were crucial aspects in determining the effective influence of the minipublics on policy decisions. In particular, the use of a strictly deliberative design on such contentious issues has proved to be counterproductive, because it has generated distortions and produced institutional conflicts, while the use of a hybrid path, although not free from problems, has proved to be a more effective solution.

The article aims at analyzing the impact of deliberation on the dynamics of the conflicts in the policy making processes. We shall argue whether and how deliberation succeeds in stopping the typical escalation of the conflicts, lowering protests, generating more open-minded institutional decisions, reducing stereotypes and developing a new constructive approach in decision making. The analysis is based on the comparison of three recent cases of deliberative processes dealing with conflictual issues: a deliberative process on the hypothesis to write a bill regulating the use and power of the living will; a public debate on a new highway stretch in the city of Genova; a citizens' jury on the building of a small plant to dispose of industrial waste in the small tuscan town of Castelfranco.