Public participation is not new. There were attempts to promote local involvement in
planning decisions in the UK as long ago as the 1960s. User involvement has long been a
feature of some social services, and ‘community involvement’ is a pre-condition of funding
from most UK and EU regeneration programmes. Until relatively recently, though, many
mainstream services remained under the control of expert professionals who, it was
assumed, acted in the best interests of service users and the public at large. Voters could
remove unpopular politicians through the ballot-box, but they were not expected to take
much of a direct interest in policy debates or the management of public services between
elections.
Current attempts to improve services and modernize governance systems have, however,
placed public engagement centre stage. Policy makers in Western democracies appear united
in the belief that it offers an important means of rebuilding trust in government and ensuring
that services are responsive to users’ needs and aspirations. Local politicians have seen
engagement with the public as a means of substantiating their claim to be ‘close to the
citizen’. Meanwhile, in the age of ‘spin’, ministers and their advisers have turned to assorted
panels, opinion polls and focus groups to help inform political priorities, policy development
and presentation.