Participation Requests: A Democratic Innovation to Unlock the Door of Public Services?

• Author: Oliver Escobar,Evgeniya Plotnikova,Artur Steiner,Clementine Hill O’Connor,Hayley Bennett
• Date: 01 April 2022
• Published date: 01 April 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00953997211037597
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211037597

Administration & Society

2022, Vol. 54(4) 605 –628

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00953997211037597

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Article

Participation Requests:

A Democratic Innovation

to Unlock the Door of

Public Services?

Hayley Bennett1, Oliver Escobar1,

Clementine Hill O’Connor2,

Evgeniya Plotnikova1,

and Artur Steiner3

Abstract

Democracies are under pressure and public administrations must evolve to

accommodate new forms of public participation. Participation processes may

reproduce or disrupt existing power inequalities. Through a multi-method

empirical study of “Participation Requests,” a new legislative policy tool to

open up public services in Scotland, this article addresses an empirical gap on

governance-driven democratic innovations (DIs). We use Young’s distinction

of external and internal inclusion and find Participation Requests replicate

the pitfalls of traditional forms of associative democracy. We contend that

DIs should be co-produced between institutions and communities to bring

a participatory and deliberative corrective to temper bureaucratic logics.

Keywords

democratic innovations, collaborative governance, governance-driven

democratization, participation requests, public service reform

1The University of Edinburgh, UK

2University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

3Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

Corresponding Author:

Hayley Bennett, Lecturer in Social Policy, The University of Edinburgh, 4f1 18 Buccleuch

Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LD, UK.

Email: Hayley.Bennett@ed.ac.uk

1037597AAS0010.1177/00953997211037597Administration & SocietyBennett et al.

research-article2021

606 Administration & Society 54(4)

Introduction

Democratic innovations (DIs) are processes or institutions “developed to rei-

magine and deepen the role of citizens in governance processes by increasing

opportunities for participation, deliberation and influence” (Elstub & Escobar,

2019b, p. 28). They are emerging across the world as a way of countering

democratic deficits, in part because the normative legitimacy of democratic

decision-making depends on the extent to which “those affected by it have

been included in the decision-making processes and have had the opportunity

to influence the outcomes” (Young, 2000, pp. 5–6). Governments, civil soci-

ety, democratic reformers, and scholars are increasingly collaborating to

develop various forms of DIs. Although much attention focuses on traditional

politically driven initiatives, it is functional needs in policymaking and gov-

ernance that tends to drive such reforms. Warren (2009, p. 3) calls this phe-

nomenon “governance-driven democratization” and comments,

Who would have thought that policy and policy-making—the domain of

technocrats and administrators would move into the vanguard of

democratization? And yet it is in this domain—not in electoral democracy—

that we are seeing a rebirth of strongly democratic ideals, including empowered

participation, focused deliberation, and attentiveness to those affected by

decisions.

This article addresses the need for empirical research into DIs that emerge

from, and operate within, these policy contexts.

In the United Kingdom, as in many other countries, the nature of demo-

cratic decision-making and the working of public institutions are currently

the focus of major political debates. Such arguments featured heavily in the

referendum from 2016 and subsequent legal and political processes for the

United Kingdom to leave the European Union (Hobolt, 2016). Furthermore,

the multilevel governance arrangement of the United Kingdom, where

Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales have their own tiers of government

with particular policy making functions, has created the space for tense

debates about democratic engagement and subnational relations for over a

decade. The Scottish Government and Parliament (led by the Scottish

National Party) has not only held an independence referendum (in 2014) but

also engaged in large-scale public service reform emphasizing democratic

renewal and community empowerment (What Works Scotland, 2019).

In 2017, the Scottish Government introduced a DI called “Participation

Requests” as part of a wider “Community Empowerment” legislative agenda

in an effort to change state–citizen relations. Participation Requests, the focus

of this article, are a legal tool allowing certain organizations and groups the