This morning (edit: that should now read yesterday morning, the 2nd), we were lucky enough to meet with Katie Stanton, the White House Director of Citizen Participation.  It was only coffee and 40 minutes but it was a great (and reinvigorating) insight into/summary of the agenda and job of increasing citizen involvement in governance.  I’m gonna try and do a quick round-up of our reflections in three bite-size blog posts, with pictures (in the style of American sports graphics, of course).

Part 1: the plan is participation

One thing that’s clear is that the Obama administration is sold on the value/necessity of a participatory approach and this forms a big part of their governance ‘tactic’.

I’m sure there are many more, all very subtle and intriguing, but here are three key reasons that it seems to me lie behind the choice of this approach:

1.  Personal conviction

No doubt there are many books that could be written on why exactly President Obama (and many of his senior staff champions like Vivek Kundra) are so genuinely, personally ’sold’ on the principle of open and participatory governance but for now suffice it to say that they are: and not just with a tokenistic or contrived nod to niceties of public interaction – there seems to be an authentic passion from the very top that this government will be open and participatory.  This is confirmed and disseminated down formally by the Open Government Memorandum – and, from talking to Katie, by the inspirational, infectious strength of personality among the administration’s leaders.

2.  Public expectation

The administration have identified that public expectation is changing and will continue to change – that people will increasingly simply expect to be able to browse around, dig into, personally interact with, comment on public policy.  It’s interesting to note that the job of Citizen Participation falls within New Media – so often, increasingly participatory governance and internet/technology go together like this, almost certainly a tacit admission of how influential a factor the internet has been in this cultural/sociological change.  As Katie said, this shift is already evident among large sections of the public and this will inevitably be reflected in the corridors of power as there comes a generational shift in positions of responsibility and seniority to ‘digital natives’, people brought up on the possibilities and corresponding cultural expectations of ubiquitous internet access.

3.  The (new) opportunity for good governance

As well as responding to the arguably fickle demands of public expectation and individual conviction, there is a clear belief that  public participation is an integral part of governing well in a representative democracy; moreover, it’s a component part of good governance that can now be realised, again because of technology, much more readily and frequently.  One of the most encouraging things about our time here so far has been seeing just how much online participation is not a gimmick or a fad but a genuinely considered, appropriate means to an end, namely the effective, democratic running of a massive, modern country.

In conclusion

The reason I say the meeting was invigorating and encouraging and lots of other positive words like that is that the above, this plan of participation, is just the groundwork really, the context for the situation in which the government is trying to operate.  That’s great, because it used to feel like the whole battle; it used to feel like it was our job to convince people in positions of power to embrace this mode of thinking.  Mercifully, it looks like we’re no longer having to fight that uphill battle: to mix my sporting metaphors, it’s like the Premiership and 4-2-3-1 – once a plan’s been adopted and proven successful by the biggest/richest/most successful, it quickly becomes the norm.

Adopting this principle, though, and trying to bring in this change of thinking, does bring its own interesting set of different problems – which is what I’ll be digging into in part 2: implementation (projects and pragmatism).  Ooh, cliffhanger…