TY  - UNPB
TI  - Evaluating Citizen Participation Procedures and Outcomes: Evidence from 4 cases of participation in the Municipality of Groningen, The Netherlands.
AV  - public
ID  - theses_frw4795
M1  - bachelor
UR  - https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/4795/
A1  - Klooster, Casper
Y1  - 2024///
N2  - Citizen participation is an instrument for government actors to involve citizens in decision-making 
processes. Government actors shape this involvement by selecting and implementing participation 
procedures. Certain elements of a participation procedure can influence its degree of effectiveness. These 
elements include; representativeness of the sample of participants, independence of participants, earliness 
of involvement of participants, influence of participants, transparency of the process, the accessibility of 
resources to the participants, clarity of the task definition, degree of structure in decision-making, and 
cost-effectiveness. These procedures shape the following participation outcome categories; construction 
of citizenship, the practice of participation, responsiveness and accountability of states, and inclusive and 
cohesive societies. To be able to predict and control participation outcomes increasingly, it is imperative 
to structurally evaluate citizen participation processes. Despite sporadic efforts, structured evaluations 
have stagnated in academic research over the last two decades (Falanga & Ferrão, 2021). The scarcity of 
comprehensive participation evaluations in Groningen indicates the necessity for structured assessments. 
This research addresses this gap by undertaking a structural evaluation of four participation procedures, 
aligning with the evaluative frameworks proposed by Rowe & Frewer (2000) and Gaventa & Barrett (2012). 
Data for this evaluation is gathered through interviews with participation procedure managers and the 
analysis of participation policy documents. The findings indicate that the municipality of Groningen employs 
participation procedures yielding negative outcomes. Moreover, the data suggests that the lack of clear 
guidelines and instruments for systematically assessing inconsistencies in participation procedures could 
contribute to this situation. Hence, this study recommends further investigation into the potential impact of 
revising participation guidelines within the Municipality of Groningen for future research endeavors.
EP  - 42
ER  -