Citizens do not feel empowered and do not feel they are
adequately given the space to meaningfully participate in public
governance. Clearly, citizens are not satisfied with the manner in
which government is run. This is evident across the developed and
developing world, as highlighted also by recent manifestation of
discontent in Europe, North America, North Africa, the Middle East,
and Asia.
While past government reforms have tendentially focused on
performance, efficiency, and productivity, recent developments in
public governance have recognized the central role of individuals
as 'citizens' rather than 'customers' in both the development and
implementation of public policies. Although government remains
indispensable to governance, citizen can and should play an active
role towards solutions to recurring problems as well as emerging
and future issues.
A key way to ensure that governments truly reflect the will of
the people, particularly the marginalized and the weaker groups of
society, is by creating an environment where citizens are given
democratic space to exercise 'voice', even in between
elections.
Citizen engagement in decision-making and public service
delivery is key to development and to the improvement in the lives
of people. The research explicitly selected cases from the largest
populated continent in the world, a region where culturally, rights
and duties of citizens as well as the power and authority of their
political leaders have been significantly influenced by 'Asian
values'. In particular, experiences in citizen engagement in India
and Thailand have been respectively further influenced by social
stratification (castes) and hierarchical proximity to the monarchy
(sakdhina). Notwithstanding the extent of democratic values within
which the two cases were implemented, both cases are indicative of
the potential impact meaningful citizen engagement can have in the
lives of ordinary people and carry with them potential for
replication.
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