The impact of institutionalised civil society participation in local policymaking in times of democratic innovation: The case of Flanders (Belgium)

Abstract

In neo-corporatist societies, organised interests like civil society organisations (CSOs) are largely embedded in the policy-making process through institutionalised participation. However, this practice is criticised in recent years for sustaining itself and not being effective anymore. Moreover, institutionalised participation often occurs in a context where governments increasingly experiment with new forms of democratic innovation, this challenges the traditional practice of institutionalised participation. This research is concerned with to what extent institutionalised participation is impactful in the policymaking process, and whether this impact is influenced by the municipal context and perceived legitimacy of institutionalised participation. We study this in the case of local advisory councils in Flemish municipalities, which are a longstanding practice of institutionalised participation. Our results show that institutionalised participation has a reasonably good impact (on average, they receive a score of 5.5/10), which is positively influenced when a municipality has a lower governance capacity, and when a municipality undertakes efforts to involve individual citizens. Last, the perceived legitimacy of institutionalised participation also positively influences its impact.