When Will Public Officials Listen? A Vignette Experiment on the Effects of Input Legitimacy on Public Officials’ Willingness to Use Public Participation

Bibliographic Data

ID6362249
AuthorsKoen Migchelbrink (0000-0002-2195-3690, KU Leuven), Steven Van De Walle (0000-0003-1531-7097, KU Leuven, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume80
Issue2
Pages271-280
Publication date2019-12-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Administration Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-3352 • E-ISSN: 1540-6210
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/puar.13138
OpenAlexW2998099525
LanguageEN
Citations received53
References cited57

Public officials can be reluctant to use citizens’ input in decision‐making, especially when turnout is low and participants are unrepresentative of the wider population. Using Fritz Scharpf's democratic legitimacy approach, the authors conducted a survey‐based vignette experiment to examine how the input legitimacy of participatory processes affects (1) public officials’ willingness to use public participation in administrative decision‐making, (2) their assessment of the quality of the policy decision, and (3) their anticipation of popular support for the policy outcome. The study shows that turnout and participants’ representativeness have a positive and significant effect on public officials’ attitudes toward public participation. Specifically, participants’ representativeness influences public officials’ willingness to use citizens’ inputs more than turnout

Citizen journalism · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Population · Public opinion · Public participation · Public relations · Representativeness heuristic · Sociology · Turnout · Vignette · Voting · Law · Psychology · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Social Capital and Networks · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology