ABSTRACT
Collaborative governance. Citizen engagement. Citizen participation. Active citizenship. Citizen deliberation. Deliberative democracy. These terms are now at the forefront of political science and public administration. Whether the terms refer to distinct phenomena or to the same concept is debatable, but few would challenge the idea that, central to all of these terms, is the idea of the citizen. In many ways, the role of the citizen is being re-emphasized and transformed in theory and practice so that citizens are becoming an integral part of program formulation and delivery. This emphasis reflects a deepening recognition that conventional political processes cannot solve the complex, “wicked” policy problems that will confront governments in the future. In addition, this renewed emphasis on the citizen may indicate that conventional political processes cannot effectively implement solutions to “tame” policy problems that are relatively ordinary and routine in government.
