Citizens' Learning, Involvement, and Participation in Decision-Making Under the Democratic Ethos: A Theoretical Framework and the Israeli Experience

Abstract Public administration literature usually assumes that citizens' participation in administrative decision-making (PDM) processes can improve public sector performance and trust. In this article, we question the universality of this assumption, arguing that PDM processes will have positive results in terms of performance and trust only when there are available channels to influence policy outcomes and democratic participatory behavior. We construct theoretical arguments based on a mechanism of social learning and illustrate them by reference to the case of Israel. The framework highlights the centrality and importance of culture and social characters for the study and planning of public administration reforms.

[1]  S. Verba,et al.  The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations, An Analytic Study , 1964 .

[2]  L. Coser,et al.  Alienation and Freedom: The Factory Worker and His Industry. , 1964 .

[3]  J. Goldthorpe.  The Affluent Worker: Political attitudes and behaviour , 1968 .

[4]  J. Goldthorpe,et al.  The Affluent Worker: Political Attitudes aud Behaviour , 1969 .

[5]  S. Arnstein,et al.  Ladder of Citizen Participation , 2020 .

[6]  C. Pateman.  Participation and democratic theory , 1970 .

[7]  R. Dahl.  Polyarchy; participation and opposition , 1971 .

[8]  V. Vroom,et al.  Leadership and decision-making , 1975 .

[9]  P. Drucker.  Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices , 1974 .

[10]  John Kenneth Galbraith,et al.  The Age of Uncertainty , 1977 .

[11]  Daniel Horowitz,et al.  Origins of the Israeli polity : Palestine under the mandate , 1978 .

[12]  A. Giddens.  Central Problems In Social Theory , 1979 .

[13]  Joseph E. Champoux,et al.  A sociological perspective on work involvement , 1981 .

[14]  H. G. Frederickson,et al.  The Recovery of Civism in Public Administration. , 1982 .

[15]  Ann C. Crouter,et al.  Spillover from Family to Work: The Neglected Side of the Work-Family Interface , 1984 .

[16]  R. Price.  Work and community , 1985 .

[17]  Carol Barner-Barry,et al.  Psychological Perspectives on Politics , 1985 .

[18]  Robert Hazell,et al.  FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA AND NEW ZEALAND , 1989 .

[19]  Leonie Sugarman.  Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, David A. Kolb, Prentice-Hall International, Hemel Hempstead, Herts., 1984. No. of pages: xiii + 256 , 1987 .

[20]  Multiple roles and organizational commitment , 1988 .

[21]  A TIME SERIES ANALYSIS OF VIOLENT CRIME AND ITS RELATION TO PROLONGED STATES OF WARFARE: THE ISRAELI CASE* , 1988 .

[22]  R. Yoder,et al.  Participation, job satisfaction and decentralization: The case of Swaziland , 1990 .

[23]  Political learning in adulthood : a sourcebook of theory and research , 1990 .

[24]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  Decision Making in Public and Private Organizations: A Test of Alternative Concepts of "Publicness" , 1990 .

[25]  G. Huber.  Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures , 1991 .

[26]  Arne L. Kalleberg,et al.  Culture, Control and Commitment: A Study of Work Organization and Work Attitudes in the United States and Japan. , 1991 .

[27]  S. Lehman-Wilzig.  Wildfire: Grassroots Revolts in Israel in the Post-Socialist Era , 1992 .

[28]  M. Bruno.  Crisis, Stabilization, and Economic Reform: Therapy by Consensus , 1993 .

[29]  P. Hall.  Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: the case of economic policymaking in Britain , 1993 .

[30]  Gustavo Stubrich.  The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization , 1993 .

[31]  D. North,et al.  Elements of Reason: Shared Mental Models: Ideologies and Institutions , 1994 .

[32]  R. Sobel,et al.  From occupational involvement to political participation: An exploratory analysis , 1993 .

[33]  P. Furlong.  Making democracy work: civic traditions in modern Italy , 1994 .

[34]  Henry E. Brady,et al.  Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics , 1996 .

[35]  The Hidden Dimensions of Japanese Administration: Culture and Its Impact , 1995 .

[36]  Chris Argyris,et al.  Action science and organizational learning , 1995 .

[37]  Mary Ann Glynn,et al.  Innovative genius: A framework for relating individual intelligences to innovation. , 1996 .

[38]  M. Glynn.  Innovative Genius: A Framework for Relating Individual and Organizational Intelligences to Innovation , 1996 .

[39]  Luis Villanueva.  Current challenges of the mexican state and of mexican public administration , 1996 .

[40]  G. Barzilai.  Wars, Internal Conflicts, and Political Order: A Jewish Democracy in the Middle East , 1996 .

[41]  C. Fornell,et al.  The American Customer Satisfaction Index: Nature, Purpose, and Findings , 1996 .

[42]  H. George Frederickson,et al.  The spirit of public administration , 1996 .

[43]  Richard C. Box.  Citizen Governance: Leading American Communities Into the 21st Century , 1997 .

[44]  W. Rahn,et al.  Individual-Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital , 1997 .

[45]  D. Bar-Tal.  Societal beliefs in times of intractable conflict: The Israeli case. , 1998 .

[46]  Camilla Stivers,et al.  Government Is Us: Public Administration in an Anti-Government Era , 1998 .

[47]  C. King,et al.  The Question of Participation: Toward Authentic Public Participation in Public Administration , 1998 .

[48]  A. Arian,et al.  The second republic : politics in Israel , 1998 .

[49]  Y. Aharoni.  The Changing Political Economy of Israel , 1998 .

[50]  G. Barzilai.  Courts as hegemonic institutions: The Israeli Supreme Court in a comparative perspective , 1998 .

[51]  Richard C. Box.  Running Government Like a Business , 1999 .

[52]  Arye Naor.  The Security Argument in the Territorial Debate in Israel: Rhetoric and Policy , 1999 .

[53]  William Simonsen,et al.  Citizen Participation in Resource Allocation , 1999 .

[54]  Jacky F. L. Hong,et al.  Structuring for organizational learning , 1999 .

[55]  Joe Soss,et al.  Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action , 1999, American Political Science Review.

[56]  R. Kramer.  Government Is Us: Public Administration in an Anti‐Government Era , 1999 .

[57]  M. Glaser,et al.  Service Delivery Satisfaction and Willingness to Pay Taxes: Citizen Recognition of Local Government Performance , 1999 .

[58]  P. Osterman.  Securing Prosperity. New Rules for a New Economy , 1999 .

[59]  R. Nyhan.  Changing the Paradigm , 2000 .

[60]  Edward C. Weeks,et al.  The Practice of Deliberative Democracy: Results from Four Large‐Scale Trials , 2000 .

[61]  S. Damico,et al.  Patterns of Political Trust and Mistrust: Three Moments in the Lives of Democratic Citizens , 2000, Polity.

[62]  J. Kraus.  Citizen Participation in Resource Allocation. By Simonsen William and Robbins Mark D.. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000. 179p. $59.00 cloth, $22.00 paper. , 2000, American Political Science Review.

[63]  Eran Vigoda,et al.  Are You Being Served? The Responsiveness of Public Administration to Citizens’ Demands: An Empirical Examination in Israel , 2000 .

[64]  Lawrence C. Walters,et al.  Putting More Public in Policy Analysis , 2000 .

[65]  C. Mantzavinos,et al.  Individuals, Institutions, and Markets , 2001 .

[66]  Archon Fung,et al.  Deepening Democracy: Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance , 2001 .

[67]  J. Migdal.  Through the Lens of Israel: Explorations in State and Society , 2001 .

[68]  K. Newton.  Trust, Social Capital, Civil Society, and Democracy , 2001 .

[69]  Eran Vigoda,et al.  Administrative Agents of Democracy? A Structural Equation Modeling of the Relationship between Public-Sector Performance and Citizenship Involvement , 2002 .

[70]  Carol Spooner,et al.  Citizen Participation in Health Decision-Making: Past Experience and Future Prospects , 2002, Journal of public health policy.

[71]  J. Kampen,et al.  Identity vs performance: an overview of theories explaining trust in government , 2002 .

[72]  C. Ebdon.  Beyond the public hearing: citizen participation in the local government budget process , 2002 .

[73]  J. Orosz.  Views from the field: creating a place for authentic citizen participation in budgeting , 2002 .

[74]  G. Bouckaert,et al.  Quality of public service delivery and trust in government , 2003 .

[75]  Current Practices for Involving Citizens in Local Government Budgeting: Moving beyond Method , 2003 .

[76]  B. Gidron,et al.  The Israeli Third Sector: Between Welfare State and Civil Society , 2003 .

[77]  Nick Devas,et al.  Local government decision‐making—citizen participation and local accountability: some evidence from Kenya and Uganda , 2003 .

[78]  Catherine L. Wang,et al.  Organisational Learning: A Critical Review. , 2003 .

[79]  S. Mizrahi,et al.  Political Participation through the Judicial System: Exit, Voice and Quasi-Exit in Israeli Society , 2003 .

[80]  Eran Vigoda,et al.  Developments in organizational politics : how political dynamics affect employee performance in modern work sites , 2003 .

[81]  R. Dibie.  Local Government Public Servants Performance and Citizens Participation in Governance in Nigeria , 2003 .

[82]  Renée A. Irvin,et al.  Citizen Participation in Decision Making: Is It Worth the effort? , 2004 .

[83]  Brian E. Adams.  Public Meetings and the Democratic Process , 2004 .

[84]  A. Franklin,et al.  Aligning priorities in local budgeting processes , 2004 .

[85]  Gretchen Helmke,et al.  Informal Institutions and Comparative Politics: A Research Agenda , 2004, Perspectives on Politics.

[86]  Syed Shariq,et al.  Learning, Institutions, and Economic Performance , 2004, Perspectives on Politics.

[87]  Daniel A. Kaufmann,et al.  Governance Matters III: Governance Indicators for 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002 , 2004 .

[88]  M. Callanan.  Institutionalizing Participation and Governance? New Participative Structures in Local Government in Ireland , 2005 .

[89]  S. Mizrahi,et al.  Political culture, alternative politics and foreign policy: The case of Israel , 2005 .

[90]  Archon Fung.  Varieties of Participation in Complex Governance , 2006 .

[91]  E. Vigoda-Gadot,et al.  Public Sector Management and the Democratic Ethos: A 5-Year Study of Key Relationships in Israel , 2006 .

[92]  E. Vigoda-Gadot,et al.  The bureaucracy-democracy tango: a dual-source empirical revalidation by structural equation modelling in the Israeli public sector , 2008 .

[93]  E. Vigoda-Gadot,et al.  Trust, Participation and Performance , 2010 .

[94]  G. Porumbescu,et al.  Trust in government , 2019 .