Learning from Your Neighbor Public Policy Dispute Resolution And Public Participation

Public Policy Dispute Resolution PPDR Using mediation and facilitation to assist stakeholders on program, regulation or policy development Growing institutionalization at local, state and federal level Related topics: multi-party negotiation, consensus-building, deliberative democracy

Public Participation PP Citizen or stakeholder input to government, nonprofits or businesses Many forms: public hearings, online polls, open houses, etc. Related topics: civic culture, dialogue, consultation, involvement

PPDR and PP Commonalities Goals and Values Concepts and objectives Practices Differences Reaching an Agreement Scope of Participation Representation and Authority

PPDR Evaluation Separate stream from PP A few overlaps of evaluation studies, PPDR and PP PP has more robust studies Future PPDR evaluation needs to learn/draw from PP evaluations

PPDR Evaluation – Improvements Four studies of PP evaluation Findings A) Representation and Legitimacy B) Draw from inductive and deductive criteria C) Clearer relationships: Measures and Goals D) More robust treatment of participation dynamics within a PPDR case

Thanks, Authors Maureen Berner and John Stephens School of Government University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill