My #nv10 talk on social media, politics and public policy
Here is a rough, unedited crib of my speaking notes this morning at Northern Voice 2010
Richard Simeon defined public policy in 1976 as the study of the set of governmental actions, decision-making processes and analysis of public decisions. Governments execute public policies primarily to serve their citizens. The most important job in the field of public policy, as indicated by Harold Lasswell, is to answer the questions who gets what, when and how? Three dimensions are key: the scope of government policy, the means and the distributive dimension. In my talk, I will be talking about social media in politics and public policy in terms of what they contribute to the distribution and provision (who gets what) of public services. More importantly, my talk speaks to the notion of citizen participation in public policy and how social media can aid in this participation.
At the core intersection of social media, politics and policy we find the same elements as with every analysis of online networks: information, behavior and relationships. If you are interested in exploring how citizens’ behavior can be affected (and enhanced) by social media, you need to look at information and the growth of interrelationships between citizens and government officials. So, all three dimensions are always present in this kind of analysis.
I am, by training, a public policy scholar. I teach and do research in the field of public policy at the domestic and comparative levels. The last decade of my life has been spent trying to understand why governments chose specific (more regulatory) instruments to govern as opposed to leaving it to citizens to govern themselves (self-regulation). I have been interested in cooperative behavior for over a decade, so it is only natural that the use of social media by politicians and public servants intrigues me. My talk with have two sides: the positive (or how the world works) and the normative (how the world SHOULD work)
The existing academic literature that intersects public policy, politics and social media seems to be sorely lacking an in-depth understanding of how policy-making really works, and how it can be improved using social networking sites (SNS). Since my fellow panelists have touched on specific case studies at the federal, provincial and local level, I will explore one of several elements that shows promise: social media to encourage citizen participation in the public policy making process.
Social media shows promise in helping governments deliver public services. Translink, the regional authority in the Lower Mainland responsible for transportation, provides timely advisories through several of their Twitter account (@SkytrainLady). The recent examples of the BC Government engaging citizens through a blog for the Modernization of the Water Act are also ways in which social media is being used for service delivery and citizen engagement.
However, given recent concerns on the erosion of privacy, it is only natural that politicians and bureaucrats may feel fear about joining social networks and/or participate in online conversations. The recent case of Raymond Lam’s resignation, the outrage over an Alberta politician’s tweets. The responses that Prime Minister Stephen Harper receives on Twitter. I could easily understand the rationale underlying a negative reaction towards participation of politicians and public servants in social networking sites. That’s from the positive view of policy making.
But from the normative perspective, I would like to encourage politicians and public servants to participate in social networking sites, to explore ways in which social media can be integrated (please note I said INTEGRATED, not ADDED ON TOP) in the policy development process.
In my work, I have studied a myriad ways in which environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) participate in policy-making processes. I have proposed a framework to understand how ENGOs influence the dynamics of domestic policy-making (the first and second order pressure transmission mechanisms, Pacheco-Vega 2001, 2005a, 2005b, 2006, Pacheco-Vega, Weibust and Fox 2010). The abbreviated version of this framework is – ENGOs can engage in direct lobbying (first order pressure transmission) or go through indirect lobbying (second order pressure transmission). The interesting phenomenon that the rise in popularity of social networking sites has generated for public policy making is that it has shifted the balance of power and the trajectory of communication.
Because of the nature of information transmission processes in the online realm, data and facts can be openly, transparently and widely distributed. Rather than being pawns in a hierarchical governance architecture, unwitting recipients of information in an asymmetrical game, the use of social networking sites enables citizens a level playing field. Social media effectively transfers power to the citizens, by increasing accessibility to previously unapproachable politicians and bureaucrats.
Whereas before the rise of social media, one had to write and snail-mail politicians a series of letters, we can now send them a quick tweet or drop a fast comment on their blogs or Facebook pages. Social media has shifted the pressure that would otherwise be second order to a quasi-direct, first-order pressure. Explained in simple English – your politicians and public servants are now more accessible than ever.
In closing, I want to reiterate my quick, back-of-the-envelope contribution to this debate, from the perspective of someone who does at the same time what Randall Ripley calls “policy analysis” and “policy theory”. I am simultaneously interested in explaining why some alternatives are implemented and why specific governmental decisions are made (policy theory) and in providing advice to governments what alternatives to choose. And it is in that context and based on the evidence I have seen in my quick-and-dirty overview of the literature and the case studies that I suggest governments at all three scales (municipal, federal and provincial) to continue to explore avenues to increase public participation using social networking platforms. Because, ultimately, government officials are elected to represent and serve the public. And what better way to do this than to involve the public in the decisions that they ultimately will have to live with? Delivering public services in a transparent, open, just and accountable manner will thus become a sign of a good government.
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