A Study of Resident Participation in the Policy Making Process of Local Governments

Abstract

In addition to the lack of financial resources in recent years, currents of the era such as the aging population, advanced information technology and globalization have increased the need for a theoretical foundation for building public consensus about public works projects. Based on the above, this paper argues how there should be a consensus building process between local governments and their residents, investigating the meaning of “agreement” and “consensus building” informed by the policy formation process while referring to existing studies, from the perspective of a local governmentʼs staff aiming at consensus building with its residents. However, if we forget that bureaucracy and residents must start on equal footing to search for a reasonable solution together, it will end up a process of justifying the imposition of someoneʼs interests. Therefore, the fundamental point of our study is not to force residents to accept the local government policy but to explore the way of how to come to an understanding about the suitability of the policy.