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Citizen Participation Handbook
for Public Officials and Other Professionals Serving the Public

by
Hans & Annemarie Bleiker

More Information

Limitations of the Handbook
History of the Handbook

Relating CP Techniques to CP Objectives
Principles of Citizen Participation
Objectives to Citizen Participation
Techniques of Citizen Participation
Designing a CP Program to Your Needs

Table of Contents
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 Principles of Citizen Participation


In trying to understand why it is so difficult for even the most dedicated public officials to earn the trust and respect of the people they serve, i.e. the "public", . . . we have come up with many fundamentally true principles. What we have not come up with is one single, simple truism that explains it all. We have not come up with a quick fix. In fact, we have been able to identify too many CP Principles. . . 60 of them! . . . What's worse, some of them -- at least on the surface -- contradict each other! . . . And yet, they all are true. . . The way we see it:

- The CP Principles do describe the political topography created by the Jeffersonian idea that in our democracy individual rights . . . rather than group rights . . . are paramount.

- Individual interests demanding you be responsive to their (minority) demands. . . thus. . . have Thomas Jefferson behind them . . .

- But, if you have come to the conclusion that, therefore, you, as a public official have to compromise your mission . . . and, thus, be irresponsible . . . you've come to the wrong conclusion.

- It really is possible -- in spite of appearances to the contrary -- for you to be both responsive AND responsible . . . Provided your agency is legitimate, provided your mission is legitimate, and provided your proposal is a valid, technically viable, way of accomplishing that mission.


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