Citizen Participation and Engagement in Urban Governance: Perception of Finnish and Polish Local Officials

Radzik-Maruszak Katarzyna and Bátorová Michaela
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Radzik-Maruszak Katarzyna: Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland, Plac Litewski 3, 20-080 Lublin, Poland and Postdoctoral fellow in Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University in Prague, U kříže 8, 15800, Prague, Czech Republic.
Bátorová Michaela: University lecturer and researcher at the School of Management, Department of Regional Studies, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland; Kalevantie 4, 33014 Tampereenyliopisto, Finland.

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy, 2015, vol. 8, issue 1, 85-110

Abstract: Participation has recently received renewed attention in the context of governance. This is especially relevant in countries where democratization and decentralization have led to an increased promotion of citizen involvement into the decision-making process. This article suggests that the current debate on civic engagement would benefit from further reflection on how the concept of participation is implemented in contexts, particularly in the Nordic as well as Central and Eastern European countries, where ideas of local democracy, urban governance and involvement can be understood differently. By exploring citizen participation from the perspective of local officials in two European cities – Lublin, Poland and Tampere, Finland, the article seeks to add significant data to the on-going scholarly discussion. Based on qualitative research, it examines advantages and disadvantages of the provisions of the local citizen-participation frameworks, as perceived by the officials of the selected case cities. In the conclusion, the authors point out that although both cities have different democratic institutional systems as well as commonly accepted notions of citizen participation, their city halls frequently face similar problems related to the use of participatory tools.

Keywords: local self-government; pros and cons of citizen participation; democracy; governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:njopap:v:8:y:2015:i:1:p:85-110:n:5

DOI: 10.1515/nispa-2015-0005

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