2.2.6: Collaborative Governance
Other Information:
While all challenges provide opportunities for a more effective large- scale collaboration in public action, the relevant
institutional design is far from being introduced. The formal inclusion of citizens input in the policy- making process, the
deriving institutional rules, the legitimacy and accountability framework are all issues that have so far been little explored.
Instant, open governance implies a substantial increase in feedback loops that are of a different scale with respect to the
present context. Any system stability is affected by the number, speed and intensity of feedback loops, and the institutional
context has been designed for less and slower loops. The definition and design of public sector role is being directly affected
by the radical increase in bottom- up collaboration, deriving from the lower cost of self- organisation. There are also important
questions to be answered - where does the legitimacy come from, how to gain and maintain the trust of users, how to identify
the users online. There is also a very important issue of how to take into the account the diversity of the standpoints, i.e.
how to achieve a consensual answer to controversial social issues, especially when we do not offer alternatives (ready- made
options) but start from an open question and work throughout different options proposed by participants. Furthermore, the
trade- off between direct or representative model of democracy will have to be analysed in this context. It is far from being
proved that the open and collaborative governance is really inclusive and representative of all the social groups, including
the disadvantaged and of all standpoints. There is a visible risk that online collaboration increases the divide, rather than
reduces it. The management of institutional bodies is changing: innovative ideas and insight coming from employees and citizens
are key resources to be exploited, and meritocracy and transparency are entering an once stable and conservative workforce.
Enhanced collaboration with citizens and private third parties should be accompanied by adequate legal and accountability
frameworks, mapping incentives to participation and enabling business models for different stakeholders. The privacy paradigm
is changing and appropriate, more dynamic frameworks have to be designed, taking into account the willingness of citizens
to share information and at the same time ensuring their full awareness of the implications and their control over the data
usage.
Indicator(s):
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