Citizens, policy co-production, politics, and the public sphere

Abstract

In this chapter the contextual, political and design features of policy co-production are assessed. Public consultations remain high-risk/high gain for governments, citizens and the administration. Successive Australian governments have encouraged the Australian Public Service (APS) to support citizen-centric policy formation. In 2011 under a progressive Labor government, two approaches to design of public consultations were successful: the Clean Energy Legislation Package, and the Digital Culture Public Sphere and Discussion Paper. In 2014, a newly elected conservative government made an unsuccessful attempt to consult on amending s18c of the Racial Discrimination Act (1975). Theoretically, the constructivist approach combines the literature on modes of e-government research, citizens as agents in policy, e-government success factors and participatory media, with evidence of institutional reform thinking, and the illustrations of practice and outcomes provided by the three case studies. Methodologically, the data is drawn from public domain materials.