Abstract
Crises often require speedy actions that have far-reaching implications for civic space and for civil society actors working to strengthen transparency, accountability, participation, and inclusion in multilevel governance. Amid this disruption, new modes of participatory governance offer innovative channels for collective action that help us to understand how democratic values and principles in multilevel crisis governance can be uphold; or, how individuals and communities can be effectively engaged in multilevel crisis and recovery policymaking; so that societies become more resilient and institutions more sustainable.
In short, participatory governance refers to democratic mechanisms and innovations that are meant to complement instruments of direct and representative democracy by the creation of collaborative networks and of deliberative spaces. When it comes to the distinguishing attributes of new modes in participatory governance, also known as ‘democratic innovations’, scholars vividly discuss the pros and cons of the many practices that inevitably are context-bound. But the use of new modes of participatory governance to explore citizens’ perspectives on values-based dilemmas, on complex trade-offs, and on long-term challenges, all inherent in public responses to crises, is yet rare and understudied. Such studies, however, are key to assess how legitimate multilevel crisis governance should look like; to connect academic and policy understanding on multilevel crisis governance (and its effectiveness) on the one side, and the (empirical) turn from democratic governance to participatory governance on the other, in academia and beyond.
This presentation has two aims. First, it points to the interim results of work package seven ‘Shaping the future – from Project to Practice’ of the LEGITIMULT project. Second, by examining the Covid-19 management through the perspective of public involvement in multilevel crisis governance it showcases whether and how citizens were involved in decision-making and thus helps to assess what lessons can be learnt for the management of ongoing and future crises. In the end, Covid-19 quickly developed from an initial health crisis into a multidimensional crisis with wider societal challenges and substantial effects on different areas, including economic policy and social coherence.