2. The public
are perfectly capable of making sense of
complex questions
Lawmakers are not necessarily expert on
the issues on which they are deciding or
debating
3. Active listening Pre-consultation Formal
consultation
Votes and
referenda
Civil society
governance
What do the public
think about
current legislation?
Who are the key
influencers and
where do they
congregate?
Do we need new or
revised legislation
for a given issue?
What is current
sentiment about an
issue or law?
What does the
public think about
the policy options?
Are there any
policy ideas?
Should we pass a
new law?
What proportion of
resources should
we allocate?
What are the
public concerns?
Are we
accountable?
4. Chinalaw.gov.cn
All draft legislation since 2009
Over 100 laws published & over
400 departmental rules
Some >100,000 comments
90-9-1 web rule applies
5.
6. 1. Online public feedback on all legislation should be default position
2. A clear consultation mandate is needed for each exercise (who/why/when/what
happens?)
3. The feed-forward of public comments to Parliamentarians is critical. Practitioners
need better qualitative data analysis tools to make sense of feedback.
4. Public feedback needs to be heard . The concept of a ‘public reading day’ or ‘public
reading half-hour’ is yet to be tested in the United Kingdom but dedicated time for
Parliamentarians to consider or hear public feedback is theoretically a good idea.
5. More pre-consultation is needed. Public dialogue on emerging policy
issues would help policymakers ensure that draft legislation was more
considered in the beginning, pre-draft. Merits of bill different to
technicalities of it.
7. No Public Feedback = Narrow views = Poor Legislation
Public Feedback + No Change – Reasons = No hope + No point
Public Feedback + No Participants = No effort / No trust
Public Feedback + Change = Impact + Better Legislation
They public can prompt questions and ways of looking at issues that may not have occurred to the experts caught up in the debate
They enable one to penetrate well beyond opinion polling, to understand not just what people say they think but how and why they think it, how they might consider trade-offs, and what might stimulate them to think differently
Whole range of opportunities to get involved.
Both Passive and active