Public bodies are increasingly acknowledging the need to get ordinary citizens more deeply involved in democratic processes – in the formation of policies and laws. A recent Public Service Commission long-term insights briefing stressed the need for more participatory democracy, while similar arguments were made in the Future of Local Government Review.

In practice, however, this often does not occur. Policy processes are frequently marked by limited consultation with the public, or consultation that is not especially meaningful. Many processes also fail to go beyond ‘consultation’ to methods that might involve citizens more deeply, such as the ‘co-creation’ of policy by public servants and ordinary citizens. More generally, there is often a sense that certain groups have had significantly more influence on decision-making than others.

The reasons for these shortcomings are varied, and not always well understood. Politicians may be constrained by partisan commitments that do not allow them to take a wide range of views into account. Politics can also be reactive and over-hasty, rushing into solutions without properly engaging the public. Public bodies may be inclined to engage only with selected ‘stakeholders’, partly through inertia or lack of time.

While all these issues, and more, have been cited in a general sense, there has been little systematic research on why and how they occur – and how they could be solved. IDEA’s research will dig deeply into the barriers to wider citizen participation in decision-making, and look at potential ways to bring those barriers down.