Relationships between local civil society organisations and local governments in contexts of individual citizen participation

• In Event: Civil society and local governance

Abstract

The relationship between civil society organisations (CSOs) and the (local) government is constantly changing and is expected to be recreated by the state taking up a more powerful role (Brandsen, Trommel, and Verschuere 2017; Bode and Brandsen 2014). We question how this relationship changes in a context of top-down individual citizen participation (among others Jäntti et al. 2023; Fung 2015).

We select two critical cases (Flyvbjerg 2011), two municipalities in Flanders that reform their advisory council to allow for more input from individual citizens: one that excludes CSOs in this, and one that includes CSOs. Advisory councils are legally embedded in the local government structure and have historically given CSOs a voice in the local policy decision-making process. In both cases we study how the reformations impact the relation between CSOs and the local government.

For this paper, we draw from different, complementary frameworks to conceptualise and operationalise the relationship between CSOs and local government. First, Najam (2000) conceptualises the relation as a combination of whether goals and/or preferred strategies to reach these goals align. This framework allows to obtain insight in the content of the relationship, however, De Corte and Verschuere (2014) add the element of control (over strategic decision making) and finances, as well as communication and contact, both specifically important for the Flemish context. Last, we bring trust into the equation. In collaborative governance, trust increases (Calò et al. 2023), this may not be the case in situation where the local government decides to (also) cooperate with individual citizens rather than CSOs.

Taking an explorative approach, we contribute to comparing various dynamics in local government and how they change the relation between CSOs and local government over time.

References

Bode, Ingo, and Taco Brandsen. 2014. "State–third Sector Partnerships: A short overview of key issues in the debate." Public management review 16 (8): 1055-1066.
Brandsen, Taco, Willem Trommel, and Bram Verschuere. 2017. "The state and the reconstruction of civil society." International Review of Administrative Sciences 83 (4): 676-693.
Calò, Francesca, Simon Teasdale, Michael J Roy, Enrico Bellazzecca, and Micaela Mazzei. 2023. "Exploring collaborative governance processes involving nonprofits." Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly: 08997640231155817.
De Corte, Joris, and Bram Verschuere. 2014. "A typology for the relationship between local governments and NPOs in welfare state regimes: The Belgian case revisited." Public Management Review 16 (7): 1011-1029.
Flyvbjerg, Bent. 2011. "Case study." The Sage handbook of qualitative research 4: 301-316.
Fung, Archon. 2015. "Putting the Public Back into Governance: The Challenges of citizen Participation and Its Future." Public administration review.
Jäntti, Anni, Henna Paananen, Anna-Aurora Kork, and Kaisa Kurkela. 2023. "Towards Interactive Governance: Embedding Citizen Participation in Local Government." Administration & Society: 00953997231177220.
Najam, Adil. 2000. "The four C's of government third Sector‐Government relations." Nonprofit management and leadership 10 (4): 375-396.

Authors

• Liese Berkvens, Ghent University

• Bram Verschuere, Ghent University