Themes / Participation: in actual practice and advice

Theme 3 Participation: in actual practice and advice

Citizens should be involved in making policies that affect them. This is true not only from a democratic point of view but also because the resulting policies will be better. The IPP can help by advising, supporting and evaluating.

Advice
The IPP has experience with diverse methods of creating and realising an interactive process with citizens. The subject, objective, target group and intended result determine the step-by-step plan that the IPP develops for the trajectory to be followed. The IPP also supervises workshops on, for example, the question of how the municipal council can reduce the distance between citizens and politics or on the division of roles between the municipal executive, the municipal council and village councils.

Support
The IPP has a number of different instruments designed to investigate citizens’ opinions. The OpinieWijzer [an online questionnaire] is a particularly effective means of reaching large groups of citizens. Acting on its own initiative or when commissioned by third parties, the IPP has designed OpinieWijzers on a wide range of issues, such as Turkey’s applying for EU membership, the European constitution or the construction of tunnel for the motorway through Maastricht. The use of pda’s makes the OpinieWijzer easy to use in on-the-street interviews.

Evaluation
The IPP does limited, small-scale research in the areas of diversity and (political) participation. Most of this research involves evaluation studies (for example, on how a local referendum was held or the effect of the government’s interactive policymaking) and research on the diversity in the various representational and administrative institutions. Example:

Advice on a referendum in Beverwijk

In 2007 the municipality of Beverwijk held its first local referendum, and in 2008 the municipality asked the IPP to evaluate the proceedings of this referendum. The purpose of the study was to suggest recommendations for the process and the procedure of any future referendum.

The IPP’s evaluation report, entitled Het referendum als breekijzer [The referendum as a crowbar], gave the municipal government advice on adjusting the referendum regulations, improving the way in which the political administration worked and organising a public debate.

More information

For more information contact Gerda Bosdriesz, g.bosdriesz@publiek-politiek.nl , tel. +31 (0)20 521 7643.

ConsultatieWijzer on the A2 motorway

The municipal government of Maastricht, the neighbouring municipality of Meerssen, the Ministry of Transport and Public Works and the province of Limburg are working together to construct a tunnel for the A2, a motorway that runs through the centre of Maastricht and that is a source of annoyance.

Three different consortia (groups of companies working together) developed ideas for this large project and the winning plan was chosen by the four government agencies in mid-2009. Prior to this, the government wanted to know what area residents and other interested parties thought about all three plans. To this end, the IPP designed the Consultatiewijzer. This Consultatiewijzer ( www.A2maastricht.nl ) consisted of a list of questions on the most important topics in the area in question. Plans were explained in short films and illustrations. Until 16 January 2009 respondents could indicate what they thought was good about a plan and what could be improved. There was ample opportunity to submit ideas. The submitted responses have been on the website since February 2009.

More information

For more information contact Roelof Martens, r.martens@publiek-politiek.nl , tel. +31 (0)20 521 76 58.

Study of nominations for the European elections 2009

At the request of the European Parliament the IPP carried out a study of the selection of candidates from the Dutch political parties who had been nominated for the European elections. Seven parties were interviewed, and a study was made of their charters and regulations and of the criteria of the Elections Act. Attention was also given to the influence of European parties and fractions on the formulation of lists of candidates from the Dutch political parties.

More information

For more information contact Nel van Dijk, n.vandijk@publiek-politiek.nl , +31 (0)20) 521 7627.