Premium
Institutions of Deliberative Democratic Processes and Interest Groups: Roles, Tensions and Incentives
Author(s) -
Hendriks Carolyn
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.00259
Subject(s) - public interest , democracy , deliberative democracy , incentive , interest group , political science , public relations , deliberation , public administration , process (computing) , power (physics) , state (computer science) , law and economics , sociology , politics , law , economics , microeconomics , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , operating system
There are inherent tensions between traditional, more pluralist forms of public participation and new deliberative democratic processes, such as citizens’ juries. These innovative processes, known collectively as citizens’ forums, challenge existing roles and power relationships between interest groups and the state. Instead of having key access to the policy stage, interest groups are required to be ‘bystanders’, ‘information providers’, and ultimately ‘process legitimisers’. With such a radical shift in roles and power structure, there are few apparent reasons why interest groups would want to participate in such deliberative processes. In some cases, to the detriment of the process, they decide not to.