Citizens’ involvement in public policy-making
The article presents an overall picture of the most important and innovative
participatory practices around the world. Such experiences are analyzed according
to three features: 1) how issues are chosen and agenda is set; 2) how participants
are selected; 3) which methods are used to favour the interaction among
them. The article concludes by depicting two contrasting models of citizens’ participation:
the «pressure» and the «dialogical» model. We argue that the distinction
between the two models broadly corresponds to the distinction between
«participatory» and «deliberative» democracy.