Arguments for deliberative participation in local economic development

Zoltán Bajmócy () and Judit Gébert ()
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Zoltán Bajmócy: University of Szeged Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Szeged, Hungary
Judit Gébert: University of Szeged Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Szeged, Hungary

Acta Oeconomica, 2014, vol. 64, issue 3, 313-334

Abstract: According to the common sense, experts, backed up by scientific methods, describe the “possible states of the world” in a value-neutral way. Then, in the political arena, delegates build on these proposals, but also consider values and interests. The present paper attempts to revise such an understanding of local economic development (LED) and argues that many of the deficiencies deriving from such a view can be remedied by deliberative participation, which is not merely a theoretical necessity, but also a practical possibility.With regard to the issue of public participation and deliberation, the paper identifies two main approaches in the LED literature: the “political” and the “apolitical”, of which the latter is mainly characterised by economic theorising. We take a closer look at the “apolitical” approach and demonstrate that in fact it is very much political. Therefore, we call for the transgression of the borderline between politics and expertise in LED, and suggest a joint democratisation of these interrelated terrains. We argue that deliberative participation is able to contribute to the quality of both the expert proposals and the working of the politics.

Keywords: local economic development; deliberative participation; informational basis; capability approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 I31 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: This paper was prepared with the financial support of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (K-109425) within the framework of the research project “The Foundation of Local Economic Development on the Basis of the Capability Approach”. Zoltan Bajmócy is grateful for the support of the Bolyai János Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Judit Gébert is grateful for the support of the Apáczai Csere János Scholarship (realised in the frames of TÁMOP 4.2.4. A/2-11-1-2012-0001 “National Excellence Program – Elaborating and operating an inland student and researcher personal support system convergence program”, a research program subsidised by the European Union and co-financed by the European Social Fund). The authors are grateful to György Pataki, György Málovics, Ferenc Mozsár, Imre Lengyel, Alyson Nicholds, Houari Mired and the anonymous reviewers for the useful comments received on earlier versions of this paper.
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