Question 1: research on benefits of participation
Overview
Scholars such as Fiorino (1990), Laird (1993), Renn et al.
(1995), or Beierle and Cayford (2002) have identified various
benefits of participation ranging from increased legitimacy of
decisions, to the development of participatory democracy, in
addition to representative democracy. Some of these and other
benefits occur as a product of learning. During interaction,
participants learn about the issues discussed and others’ points
of view. They are also able to discover new common ground
and to enhance their social interaction skills. As a result of this
learning, the following benefits are ascribed to participation:
l Better quality decisions: When the knowledge of
different actors, including experts, is brought together
and integrated during discourse, this can potentially lead
to better informed decisions.
l Better acceptance of decisions: By involving people who
are affected by the decision, broader agreement can be
sought, which will potentially increase support for
implementation.
l Development of social capital: Through the potentially
intensive interaction in a participation process,
participants can build new networks and work to resolve
conflicts, thus having an opportunity to increase their
social capital, which in turn may enable them to more
easily solve problems and new conflicts in the future.
Trend: evaluation of participation
For more than a decade, major policies, such as the 2000
European Water Framework Directive, and the terms of
reference for many projects, in particular in the development
sector, have required different forms of stakeholder
involvement and participation. In an attempt to identify to what
extent these policies and projects are producing the theoretical
benefits of participation, authors have proposed a range of
evaluation procedures. For example, sets of criteria have been
developed to analyze the influence of the political, economic,
and social context of participation (e.g., Beierle and Konisky
2000). Other frameworks have been developed to evaluate the
quality of the participation process (e.g., Webler 1995, Rowe
and Frewer 2000, Schuett et al. 2001). Result evaluations of
individual cases (e.g., Rowe et al. 2004) but also of long-term
and large-scale participation approaches have also been
carried out (e.g., for an evaluation of the international
governance approach in the North American Great Lakes
region, see Klinke 2009), as well as meta evaluations based
on multiple case studies (e.g., Beierle and Cayford 2002, Jones
et al. 2009, Newig and Fritsch 2009, Etienne 2010). Despite
this progress, empirical data are still largely inconclusive as
to under which conditions participation typically leads to