This presentation was made by Alberto ALEMANNO, HEC Paris/NYU School of Law, at the 3rd OECD Forum on Governance of Infrastructure held in Paris on 26 March 2018

1. Public Participation
Consultation for Inclusive
Infrastructure
Alberto Alemanno
HEC Paris/NYU School of Law

2. scope
A few reflections on current practices in public
participation in OECD member countries
&
some insights and recommendations

3. structure
• What
• Why
• Which
• Obstacles & Risks of Failure
• ICT
• Evaluation
• 10 Recommandations

4. challenges to democracies
• civic disaffection: gov’ts & public action
• distruts towards political parties
• questioning of monopoly of expertise

5. decision-making no longer
as a ‘top-down’ affaire
but as a ‘bottom-up’ affaire

6. OECD Recommendation on Regulatory
Policy and Governance
Adhere to principles of open government, including
transparency and participation in the regulatory process
to ensure that regulation serves the public interest and is
informed by the legitimate needs of those interested in
and affected by regulation. This includes providing
meaningful opportunities (including online) for the public
to contribute to the process of preparing draft regulatory
proposals and to the quality of the supporting analysis.
OECD, Recommendation of the Council on Regulatory
Policy and Governance, 2012, p.4, para. 2

7. A Framework for the Governance of
Infrastructure
The consultation process should be
proportionate to the size of the project and take
account of the overall public interest and the
views of the relevant stakeholders.
The process should be broad-based, inspire
dialogue and draw on public access to
information and users’ needs.

8. despite this committment
“as a nuisance at worst and as an optional extra
or nice-to-have at best”.
UK Public Administration Committee
Written evidence submitted by Involve (PE 7)

9. what public participation is
public participation - open policymaking -
engaged governance
involving the members of the public in the
process of decision-making

10. engagement
• Public communication
• Public consultation
• Public participation

11. genesis
• Idea of:
Renaissance of participatory democracy
• Operationalised by:
New Public Management
• Mainstreamed by:
Open Government Movement

12. Open Government
‘the transparency of government actions, the
accessibility of government services and
information and the responsiveness of
government to new ideas, demands and needs’.
OECD, Modernising Government: The Way Forward, Paris: OECD, 2005.

13. Why
Different rationales
• Intrinsic
– Accountability/civic capacity/trust  deepening
of democracy
• Instrumental
– Input/output legitimacy

14. Why in infrastructure
• Legitimacy
• Transparency
• Identification of needs
• but should also be about oversight

15. Which
traditional and innovative forms
numerous, but poorly defined
systematization effort

16. At which stage?

17. Mandatory participation

18. Mandatory for identification of needs

19. illustrations
• Public hearings
• Public debate
• EIA

20. Implementation / Evaluation
• Limited and absent in enforcement
• Evaluation: ex post

21. obstacles
SE requires active, not only passive:
resources, cognitive skills, for both sides
• Lack of awareness
• Low participation literacy
• Information overload and capture
• Cynicism to past record

22. Promises of ICT
Reconsideration of mechanisms
Facilitate and simplify participation
2 eras:
1. digitalisation traditional mechanisms
2. ‘participative web’ to enhance quality: co-
production

23. Evaluation is key
• Accountability
• Learning
• Ethical and moral reasons
• Behavioural
But how to evaluate?
Participation satisfaction not enough:
- on the demand side
- exclusionary

24. recommendations
1. Bottom-up understanding: what’s in for them
2. Beyond the tick-box exercise: the value
3. Scope: the whole cycle
4. The supply side: civil servants
5. 2nd order engagement: representativeness
6. Policy neutral
7. Design: empower/manage public
8. Experimenting
9. Digital
10.Evaluation matters

25. conclusions
participation
representation