interact dynamically with citizens online’ they are ‘concerned at not being authorised to comment publicly’, cafe terrace at night van gogh crocband clog leading to ‘delays incommensurate with the nature of online consultation’.
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These are tall orders for a traditional, or even a progressive public service. They represent the opposite end of the spectrum from a command-and-control stance, and indeed reach well beyond afe terrace at night van gogh crocband clog the consultative approaches to engagement that currently apply. Whether such challenges will prove a bridge too far is the question of the moment. a culture in which citizens recognise themselves as participants and public servants welcome them as partners—a culture which is collaborative, inclusive, self-critical, and with a deep hunger for the public good. As stressed throughout this paper, robust engagement with citizens is highly desirable, and a foundational element of democratic governance. But it can be bruising and frustrating, and it must accommodate the various modes of both online and face-to-face participation.
Again, it is hard to overstate the cultural shift involved in creating a public service that is truly citizen-centric in its thinking and acting. It requires sustained political commitment from ministers, vigorous leadership from the Senior Executive Service and effective professional development and training for all involved. In short, public servants will engage with citizens, and will collaborate in co-production of policy and public services, only to extent that ministers prescribe, department heads direct, and budgets allow. A second reason for government departments and agencies to participate in public forums hosted by third parties is that discursive practices within government sites inevitably remain bound by a significant imbalance in power relationships which can limit participation levels and the effectiveness of government-hosted and managed online consultation sites. In the broader concept of online citizen engagement proposed, there is a strong argument that government should go to the people rather than making people come to it. While public servants ‘express willingness to
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