Integrating Participatory Institutions into the Traditional Representative and Bureaucratic Model of Public Governance

There has been a growing demand for increasing citizen participation on public governance in the last three decades. But, can more citizen participation improve the democratic quality and/or the effectiveness of government? What forms of participation have the potential to accomplish these goals? And more important, how can these participatory mechanisms be integrated into the traditional representative and bureaucratic model of public governance, in order to grasp these potential? These are the questions we try to answer in this paper, building on theories and empirical evidence provided by both political and public administration scholars. We find that formally integrating some new forms of participatory and empowered governance institutions – popular initiatives and referendums, and public-private co-governance councils – into the regular functioning of the political-administrative system can enhance the effectiveness and responsiveness of public governance. But that in order to secure these benefits and not compromise equality, the introduction of popular initiatives and referendums needs to be accompanied by reforms that equalize the powers and augment the representation capacity of interest groups; while the introduction of public-private co-governance councils needs to come with strong and highly representative legislatures.