Dialogic Public Policy

Dialogic public policy invokes the possibilities of a participatory democracy in which citizens are active partners with government throughout the policy [Page 227]process. This form of participation emphasizes deliberation, joint learning, and building agreements toward mutually identified public goals. Dialogic public policy seeks to put greater control over policy in the hands of citizens where input is proactive and involved, rather than reactive and passive. As a result of increased globalization, complexity, and gradual shifts toward governing networks, involving citizens through dialog has become increasingly important to achieving workable and accepted solutions.

Dialogic public policy requires environments that are conducive to jointly forming and implementing policies. Such environments are town hall forums, citizen juries, and advisory groups. Dialogic public policy is iterative, meaning that even though consensus may not be evident at the outset of a policy process, dialog moves participants closer toward substantive agreement. As a result, individual interests are negotiated with the common good, as distinct from processes whereby interests are static and aggregated.

Dialogic public policy assumes that citizens and government take on roles not normally assigned in liberal schemes. It characterizes citizens as active, not passive; passionate, but not overly so. The foundation of a dialogic public policy process sets the conditions for joint learning, which generates shared meaning among citizens and government. As decisionmakers, participants are placed on an equal footing with experts, where diverse forms of knowledge are equally valid. When value is placed on shared decisions, relationships among members are increasingly important. These relationships facilitate habits of civic judgment, where citizens learn to negotiate their preferences in the context of the common good. The role of government in dialogic public policy is intended to facilitate citizen involvement in decisions where citizens act as co-learners in the process.

Dialogic public policy is not without its critics, who are chiefly concerned with its functionality and appropriateness of scale and capacity for solving problems in the public interest. Because of its heavy reliance on relationships, questions arise about the practicality of the concept at anything larger than the community level. At a national scale, certain policy decisions, such as national security, are inappropriate for mass input. Also, dialogic public policy assumes that all citizens have equal capacity to engage. The wide disparity in free time, education, and interest allows for the possibility that agencies will be captured by special interests that have the resources to steer decisions. Only a government that is willing to be creative about its techniques for involvement and is sincere about its willingness to share power can mitigate these dangers.