Thriving in An Unfriendly Territory

Vrydagh, Julien; Devillers, Sophie; Jacquet, Vincent; Talukder, David; Bottin, Jehan

doi:10.4324/9781003104643-6

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Our data come from a series of 11 FGs (54 participants) 1 conducted between April 2019 and March 2020 in Brussels, Belgium, as a part of a larger research project on representation. In line with increased attention for deliberative institutions across Western democracies, Belgian governments over the past decades have experimented extensively with organized policy discussions (Vrydagh et al, 2021). As Jacquet et al (2022: 299) indicate ‘all federal and federated parliaments in Belgium have used mini-publics to inform their legislative process.’ Furthermore, the German-speaking community of Belgium was the first to install a permanent citizens’ assembly in 2019 (Niessen and Reuchamps, 2022).…”

Section: Design and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Picturing deliberation: How dissatisfied citizens make sense of it

Does

Petit

2022

International Political Science Review

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What makes politically dissatisfied citizens enthusiastic about deliberation? And what makes them hate it instead? Based on a picture task embedded in a series of focus groups conducted in Belgium, we argue that differences in sense-making help to explain why dissatisfied citizens (do not) support deliberation. We focus on two groups of dissatisfied citizens: non-partisan activists and politically disadvantaged citizens. For both groups, we find that when they thought of deliberation as low-key, informal discussion, they linked it to respectful communication and beneficial outcomes; when they thought of it as formalized, structured discussion, their appraisals became much more negative. For researchers of deliberation, our results make clear that we should be careful in asking citizens what they think about ‘deliberation’ without inquiring into the way they interpret it. For deliberation practitioners, our findings underline the relevance of integrating informal interactions into the design of deliberative institutions.

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Section: Design and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Picturing deliberation: How dissatisfied citizens make sense of it

Does

Petit

2022

International Political Science Review

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Instrumental councillors? On the strategic interests that drive local councillors’ legitimacy perceptions of citizen participation

De Smedt,

Haesevoets,

Steyvers

et al. 2024

Policy Studies

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The spread of participatory budgeting: Procedural diversity, municipal context, and electoral drivers in the Belgian context

Jacquet,

Minsart,

Dodeigne

2024

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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Public participation is a popular mantra in contemporary governance. Participatory mechanisms have been analysed extensively. The systematic study of how, where and why public authorities implement them is, however, under researched. The paper aims to fill this gap by focusing on participatory budgeting (PB) processes in the Belgian context (Wallonia and Brussels). First, we critically assess the ‘participatory’ feature of PB by comparing who decides in such processes. Second, we identify the contextual and political factors that trigger the establishment of PB. Findings suggest that PB has become a widely diffused institutional practice for authorities with different ideological orientations and across different municipal contexts. However, the way the participatory ideal is put into practice reveals distinct dynamics. In some cases, the use of the participatory rhetoric is a way to requalify an old practice without significantly transforming how the budget is allocated. Overall, this study seeks to offer a better understanding of the integration of democratic innovations in contemporary governance. Points for practitioners The paper unveils the diversity of practice behind the label ‘participatory budgeting’. It provides a new typology of PB processes by focusing on the decision phase. It offers a systematic study of PB establishment in the Belgian context by analysing the role of municipal context, ideology and the electoral drivers.

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Thriving in An Unfriendly Territory

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Picturing deliberation: How dissatisfied citizens make sense of it

Picturing deliberation: How dissatisfied citizens make sense of it

Instrumental councillors? On the strategic interests that drive local councillors’ legitimacy perceptions of citizen participation

The spread of participatory budgeting: Procedural diversity, municipal context, and electoral drivers in the Belgian context

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