The answers to the above nagging questions are best captured in a 2018 research study by T. Malokwane and M. T. Lukamba titled: “Citizen Involvement in the Formulation of Public Policy” where it is observed that some governments do not engage citizens sufficiently in the process of public policy formulation. The authors add that it remains relatively unclear as to why governments evade engaging citizens in the formulation of policy and conduct random and cursory consultations in order to “enshroud the lack of consultation”.
The research paper seeks to demonstrate that while citizen engagement has traditionally been the bedrock of policy formulation in Botswana, “there has been a decline in the culture of citizen engagement in policy formulation over a period of time”.
After finding fault with a number of approaches in policy formulation that excludes effective citizen participation, it is recommended that stakeholders should strive “to actively foster collaborative participation” because the exclusion thereof in policy formulation “produced un-favourable policy outcomes and effects”.
The paper also calls for further research in the area of policy formulation in Botswana so that causal linkages could be established between policy formulation and other areas of public policy making processes such as policy implementation and evaluation.
Citizen participation is described as the involvement of citizens in a wide range of activities that relate to the making and implementation of policy including the determination of levels of service, budget priorities, and the acceptability of physical construction projects in order to orient government programmes towards community needs.
Citizen involvement means the public’s ability to take part or participate in the nation state’s processes and activities especially concerning preparation of public policy and the critical decision making that affects their day to day lives. Various scholars are agreed that citizen engagement refers to ways, activities or processes for involving citizens in the public policy process. Basically citizen involvement entails engagement of citizens as participants in the development of public activities such as public policy formulation.
Occasionally scholars are found to utilize the concepts ‘citizen involvement’ and ‘citizen participation’ to refer to the same process and it is distinct that citizen participation is a process which provides private individuals an opportunity to influence public decisions. Citizen participation has long been a component of the democratic process. Public involvement means ensuring that citizens have a direct voice in public decisions.
It is also observed that many agencies or individuals choose to exclude or minimize public participation in planning efforts claiming “citizen participation is too expensive and time consuming”. Yet, many citizen participation programmes are initiated in response to the public reaction to a proposed project or action.
However, there are benefits that can be derived from an effective citizen participation in the planning process namely: information and ideas on public issues, public support for planning decisions; avoidance protracted conflicts and costly delays; reservoir of good will which can carry over to future decisions; and spirit of cooperation and trust between the agency and the public.
Public policy formulation is a process that requires various stakeholders and may be a difficult one or result in failure if citizens are left out of the planning process and for citizens to be involved in policy formulation process, they must first have a reason and interest in politics, concerning regarding public issues, a sense that their actions will make a difference and a sense of civic responsibility.
It is argued further that in addition to this psychological participation in the political process, the availability of certain resources may have profound effect on citizen involvement. Countries across the world have engaged (through either involvement or participation) citizens in policy formulation.
It is further buttressed that “it is critical that citizens are engaged at the initiation of any public policy for purposes of ownership and smooth policy formulation as well as implementation”. Involving citizens in the formulation of public policy is necessary for modern-day governments. The theory and practice of public administration is increasingly concerned with placing the citizen at the center of policy makers’ considerations, not just as target, but also as agent. This is a very important aspect in policy making because “the policies are made for the people therefore they should be made with the people”.
Citizen involvement is credited for educating the public and development of a sense of citizenship. Citizen involvement is equally important as it is needed in building commitment and capacity of the government and citizens.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recommends that government invests adequate time, resources and commitment in building robust legal policy and institutional frameworks thereby developing appropriate tools and evaluating their own performance in engaging citizens in policy making.
Citizen interest allows involvement in the decision process from an early stage related planning procedure and encourages citizens input in the panning process as it presents the views of the entire community on specific issues to ensure that the proposed plan mirrors their aspirations. This will consequently affect the citizen’s ability to comprehend the decision making process.
It is argued that “it is significant to involve citizens in public policy formulation so as to defuse tension and conflict over public decisions” and equally, “information should be availed to the public in the same way, government expects citizens to usher it with information. Poorly designed and inadequate measures for information, consultation and active participation in policy making can undermine government relations with the citizens”. The participation of the public in policy formulation can be effective only when that decision can have an impact in their community. That policy should have interest in the community demand otherwise there is a possibility of rejection by the citizens.
It is imperative that the citizen be more involved in the public policy formulation process and have a better understanding of the same process for instance, a truly responsible government will ensure that citizens understand and actively consider policy choices that are before the society. This is likely to increase the efficiency of the policy being formulated at implementation stage.
It is argued that the denial of the public to participate in policy formulation is often linked to how government perceives a ‘citizen’ and the term ‘citizen’ includes just about anyone within a particular society or community regardless of their gender, social standing ethnic group and vulnerability state.
Some public administrators insist that “a citizen is instead the owner of the government and as such, citizens are not just the masses following the elites being the government. They possess power and can certainly control the government. As such, involving citizens at the center of policy formulation stage provides an opportunity to citizens to have their government make choices informed by their input”.
Public participation is perceived as one of the milestones of democracy and local governance. Public participation in the making and implementation of policy as such is indispensable for sustaining democracy and promoting good local governance and administration.
The paper concludes that “citizen involvement in Botswana has often times been relegated to one sided consultation. There have been several incidents where public officials refused to engage citizens at kgotla meetings following their public address and this negates the intentions of the consultation exercise as communication in this instance was only one way”.
