Sources of the Principle of Participation
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group, sources, skills, and knowledge. The sense of involvement depends on identity, homogeneity, trust, and citizenship. The degree of organization is based on the type of organization, its activities, and its organizational structure. Whether the citizens have been asked to participate varies depending on the forms of participation, strategy, and diversity. Whether the citizens’ participation is appreciated is monitored by the extent to which the authority actually listened to the citizen’s advice, the prioritization of public opinion, the feedback and training that participants receive. These variables are in turn associated with a range of facets, which partly served as the basis for the standard questionnaire which is used.
5. Sources of the Principle of Participation The principle of public participation has been developed in different ways and the most important ones are the development by legislation and the development by policy. I mention here, as some examples, the Charter on Local Government and the Aarhus Convention. The last one has had an enormous impact on Dutch procedures in environmental law. The relevant act is EC Regulation 1367/2006 on the application of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision- making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to EC institutions and bodies. It enforces the position of NGOs in their possibilities to request an internal review of ‘an administrative act under environmental law’. In addition to this EC Regulation, it might also be interesting to refer to the EC White Paper on European Governance. Curtin and Dekker are very critical of it, especially on the position of NGOs.24 The value of mentioning these laws and policy papers shows how dynamic this principle still is.
(a) Features of the principle of participation General elections can be seen as an aspect of the principle of public participation, but more in the constitutional law context reflecting indirect democracy. But in the administrative law context we also find elements of more direct democracy in which the following three aspects are relevant: who can participate, about what, and at what moment? The principle of public participation in the administration is allocated according to two features: the people involved in the competence or act concerned, and the stage of the decision-making process. This is illustrated with some articles of GALA: Article 3:10 1. The procedure for the preparation of orders provided in this division shall be followed if this is required by statutory regulation or by order of the administrative authority.
Article 3:13 1. Interested parties may state their views on the application or the draft either orally or in writing, at their discretion. (Article 1:2: 1. ‘Interested party’ means a person whose interest is directly affected by an order.)
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Curtin and Dekker 2002.
