ABSTRACT
This chapter describes initiative to develop an innovative "urban village" in Seattle failed when planners ignored the need for "broader representation of differing points of view" in the planning process. Whenever public managers choose to bring the public into administrative decision making, they immediately face a twofold challenge: how to persuade a representative public to participate, and how to engage that public effectively in reaching a decision. A thorough stakeholder identification process ordinarily requires a combination of a top-down approach directed by the manager and a bottom-up approach emanating from the public. In the top-down approach, managers and staff attempt to define the potentially interested external actors in advance of an involvement process. A manager might choose, for example, to separate the initial definition of the public from actual decision making, as perhaps by using a citizen survey to learn how citizens feel about an issue without prompting public calls for action.
