Parliamentary Triangle Seminar Series

Time: 4pm to 5.30pm followed by drinks and canapes

What happens when citizens decide?
Identifying what works

In an era of declining public faith in the system of government, citizen-centric governance has become the panacea to all our wicked problems. Indeed the clarion call of the Advisory Group on the Reform of Australian Government Administration was to ‘enable citizens to collaborate with government in policy and service design’ (RAGA 2010, p. 39). However, there continues to be a dissonance between the rhetoric of citizen-centric governance and developments in the field of action. In a recent survey, 65 per cent of Commonwealth SES saw citizen-centric governance as ‘meaning different things to different people and organisations’ and 72 per cent as resulting in ‘more considered consultation’ rather than a new mode of governance (ANZSIG, 2011). At the same time, the rhetoric of politicians often emphasizes the importance of citizen participation when in practice they really mean consultation between decision-maker and citizen. It is evident from various fudged attempts at cooperative federalism that the idea of sharing the process of decision-making itself is unpalatable to most politicians. This is why the critical challenge in Australian governance is the problem of sharing power whether with citizens, stakeholders or other governments.

What do we mean then by citizen-centric governance? Where is best practice to be found? What happens when citizens decide? Are there emerging policy agendas that are best suited to a citizen-centric approach? And, what are the implications of such an approach for public sector leadership and governance? ANZSIG is delighted to bring together a group of leading international and national design thinkers on citizen-centric governance in an interactive interview format to help us to address these questions.

Facilitator

Facilitated by Paul Porteous, Visiting Faculty at Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership, Executive Director of the Centre for Social Leadership and expert on the role of adaptive social leadership in citizen-centric governance.

 

 

 

Panelists

	John Body, from Think Place, the leading service designers in Australia.
	Nina Terrey, from Think Place, the leading service designers in Australia.
	Professor Mark Evans, co-designer of the 2007 European Citizens Consultation, the largest deliberative event ever held in the European Union.
	Professor Lawrence Pratchett, co-designer of the CLEAR model used by the Council of Europe to diagnose appropriate forms of citizens’ engagement across the European Union in collaboration with local citizens.
	Richard Denniss, Executive Director of The Australia Institute.
	Karolina Szukalska, specialist in service co-design and coordinator of the Anglicare-ACT Home to Work Program.
	And with the thoughts of Professor Gerry Stoker, Director of the Centre for Citizenship, Globalisation and Governance, University of Southampton, founding Chair of the New Local Government Network, the UK think tank of the year in 2004 and celebrated author of Why Politics Matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We look forward to seeing you at what promises to be an important event on what works in the context of citizen-centric governance. Please find links to some useful reference materials below.
 

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