Public Value and Participation: A Literature Review for the Scottish Government

This paper provides a brief account of the theory of public value and outlines how public participation can contribute to the process of authorising what public managers do, establishing priorities and decision making and measuring the performance of public organisations.


FOOTNOTES

1. 'Thinking generally about what you expect of public services like local councils, schools, would you say they greatly exceed or slightly exceed your expectations, are about what you expect, fall slightly short or fall a long way short of your expectations?' Base: 2004 (1,502 respondents), 1998 (5,064).

2. At 51.7 per cent for the constituency vote and 52.4 per cent on the regional vote turnout in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections was 2.3 per cent higher than 2003, but 6.4 per cent lower than 1999 (Herbert et al, 2007)

3. In simple terms, this means not merely reacting to what the public demands (or the media's interpretation of it) but informing public opinion and outlining the constraints faced by public managers (taking the opposite view, where necessary) before responding.

4. For further information about the theory of public value see Horner, L, Lehki, R and Blaug, R (2006) Deliberative Democracy and the Role of Public Managers.

5. See: http://www.wen.org.uk/health/PBCOM/breast.htm

6. See: http://www.ce.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/scrcs_006693.hcsp - TopOfPage

7. See: http://www.policyhub.gov.uk/docs/Viewfinder.pdf
See also the Communities Scotland Scottish Centre for Regeneration website for a comprehensive list of resources on engaging communities:
http://www.ce.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/scrcs_006637.hcsp

8. See: http://www.cosla.gov.uk/index.asp?pageId=100011013-11301321

9. See: http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/communityplanning/plan/together.asp

10. Julian Rush, 'Spinning a nuclear consultation?' Channel 4, 19 September 2007
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/environment/spinning+a+nuclear+consultation/821457
John Vidal, 'New nuclear row as green groups pull out' The Guardian, 7 September 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/sep/07/nuclearindustry.nuclearpower
John Sauven, 'We've never been so consulted', The Guardian - Comment is Free, 27 September 2007,
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_sauven/2007/09/weve_never_been_so_consulted.html

11. Note that Transforming public Services: The Next Phase of Reform was published under the former Labour/Liberal Democratic coalition in Scottish Government. This has now been replaced by three principles around which reform should be organised, as espoused by the current Scottish National Party administration. These are Better Value for the Public Pound; Outcome-Focused Public Services; and Efficient and Streamlined Public Services.

12. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/04/19168/35271

13. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/04/19276/36157

14. http://www.scotland.gov.uk0682ea13-1e3e-4560-8400-70119501bfca

15. The authors argue that imposing a formal requirement to consult in a particular way is unlikely to generate a process that is responsive to local people.

16. See Annex One for details of this method.

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