Handbook on Citizen Engagement: Beyond Consultation - SASANet

and actions. It sees dialogue as more than a conversation – it requires one to be open to the otherand a willingness to be persuaded. Deliberation involves collective problem-solving andprioritization resulting in more legitimate decision-making processes.How is this different than a public opinion poll?One leading view 4 argues that polls represent raw information that fails to take into considerationthe processing of complex information that is necessary to come to what he calls “publicjudgment”, or an informed choice. Citizen engagement provides forums for citizens to processcomplex information so that they can come to a deeper understanding of a situation and thusbecome capable of making a well-founded choice.How is this different than negotiations with stakeholder groups?Stakeholder representatives often come to the table with firmly entrenched positions that they aremandated to defend. Citizen engagement, which can be structured as a parallel or complementaryprocess to stakeholder engagement, aims to include citizens in processes, as individuals whorepresent themselves. Public interest groups sit somewhere between citizens and stakeholders:they take a public interest perspective and may or may not have pre-determined positions thatthey bring to policy discussions.How does citizen engagement fit with the concept of public involvement?Public involvement is an umbrella term that generally refers to the spectrum of methods withwhich to consult, engage or involve citizens and stakeholder groups in policy or programdevelopment processes. As such, citizen engagement is one of many theories, methods orapproaches that fit within the concept of public involvement.For further reading:For a brief introduction to Deliberative Dialogue and other theoretical issues: QuantumGovernance’s IPAC Centre for Governance Dialogue. Theoretical Toolkit Inventory.www.quantumgovernance.ca/toolkit/theoretical/theoretical_toolkit_inventory.html.One of the foundational books in the field of citizen engagement: Yankelovich, Daniel. 1991.Coming to Public Judgment. University of Syracuse Press, NY.A detailed and thoughtful handbook on Democratic Dialogue in an international context withextensive practical guidelines: Pruitt, Bettye and Philip Thomas. 2007. Democratic Dialogue – A<strong>Handbook</strong> for Practitioners. Canadian International Development Agency, IDEA, UNDP andGS/OAS. www.idea.int/publications/democratic_dialogue/index.cfm.c) An introduction to the frameworks for citizen engagementThe following section introduces three spectrums of approaches to citizen engagement through anumber of frameworks.The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) developed the IAP2 PublicParticipation Spectrum (see Table 3). 5 The first two categories, “Inform” and “Consult” wouldnot qualify as citizen engagement since they do not entail a two way flow of information in aniterative fashion.6 CANADIAN POLICY RESEARCH NETWORKS