The European Institute on Public Participation has published together with the Bertelsmann Foundation a systematic comparison of public participation models used in poilcy-making (pdf, in German). In particular the study focuses on large-scale deliberative models and how they are used by whom. These models include everything from Appreciative Inquiry to Participatory Budgeting to Future Workshops.
The handbook is intended for policy-makers, pracitioners of public participation and researchers. It explicitly follows a systematic, though application-oriented approach. This helps to compare the remit and merit of each model. They are analysed according to …

We are happy to present you the full version of the EIPP report on the uses of public participation in Europe.
The report is a continuously ongoing work in progress. We will in the future update the report or parts thereof in order to provide you with an ongoing analysis of public participation in Europe. Older versions of the report will continue to be avilable as well, of course.
Please comment. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Only through your contribution and knowledge can this report be useful to its …

We had a wonderful event at the Young Foundation this morning. An engaged and interested group of people from national and local government, NGOs, academic bodies and think tanks discussed a short version of a soon to be published report on the need for evaluation of participation.
You can find copies of the Executive Summary of the report, the Presentations and a Summary of the Issues Raised on our Events page. But, before you go, please add your feedback and further thoughts here.

As polities become larger and more heterogeneous and their tasks more complex, the erosion of democratic vitality may seem inevitable. But perhaps the problem is not the size and heterogeneity of a polity nor the tasks political institutions face as such, but the way they are designed to address them.
What is needed is a fundamental revitalization of democratic practices, which will empower ordinary citizens in new ways.
In this paper we set out a vision of how to establish participation in real world settings and sketch out the biggest challenges …