Citizens' evaluation of public participation

The promotion of citizens’ participation in policy making is a relatively new task for governments and citizens’ evaluation of public participation policies is a litmus test of their real propensity to consider citizens as resources for, and not as obstacles to, governing. This chapter aims to clarify the role of citizens in the evaluation of policies on public participation, on the basis of their own condition and point of view. Some methodological remarks will be the starting point both for the definition of a theoretical framework and for a review of current practice, drawn particularly from Italy. After which, a set of operational steps of the evaluation process are defined in terms of: what must be evaluated, with which criteria, who should evaluate and what are the tools of the evaluation.