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John Kingdon’s Multi-Stream Framework sheds light on the foundational conditions under which public policies get formulated and implemented. The coupling of the Problem, Policy, and Politics streams along with efforts by Policy Entrepreneurs opens the Opportunity Window for policy realization. Interpreting Kingdon’s MSF, a rich scholarship exists, which found evidence in support of this framework. Some instances of the opening up of multiple windows are found in MSF. However, two aspects remain unclear. First, what happens when multiple windows open, some of them could be opened by the opposing side simultaneously to the policy window? Second, no literature exists that discusses the application of multiple windows of the MSF. In this context, this paper takes the idea of multiple windows seriously along with illustrations from Delhi, India where we find that although a window of opportunity existed for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, it could not privatize water supply. Our argument is that multiple windows opened up, some by the opposition that thwarted water privatization attempts of the state government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neighbourhood Recovery Programme is the first government urban regeneration programme implemented in Chilean underprivileged urban areas using deliberative processes. Through interviews with key policy makers and the revision of government documents, this article explores the cognitive metaphors by which this programme frames its local construction of sociability. In so doing, this research examines the programme’s potential to build a deep conception of local democracy. The article contributes to debates discussing the effect of the Chilean state in enhancing or curtailing civil society empowerment in politically excluded areas. It argues that this programme’s metaphors serve efficient policy implementation. However, they also reproduce top-down dynamics of institutional imposition that undermine accountability and have already been described by ethnographers in underprivileged neighbourhoods.

This article would like to write about the effects of the simultaneous election policy on the quality of democracy at the local level. In 2015, the election policy applied simultaneously. In practice, the elections simultaneously chosen to emphasize the effectiveness and efficiency of the budget and not for the instruments to the process of deepening democracy. In effect, femonena bagongan happened in the elections Purbalingga. Bagongan has become a form of resistance of the people against the elite political parties and form of movement is unwilling to political parties.

Deliberative democracy is expected to increase legitimacy and effectiveness of democratic governance. In recent years, a growing body of research has reported on different instances of participatory innovations across the globe. Nevertheless, quantitative evidence on the determinants of legitimate and effective deliberative procedures is still scarce. Examining parents’ participation in school governance in Switzerland, this article explores the effect of the design of deliberative institutions on perceptions of legitimacy and effectiveness. Based on an original survey of 312 parent councils of public primary schools in Switzerland, the results of our analysis corroborate theoretical expectations about the impact of institutional design on legitimacy and effectiveness of deliberative procedures: More authority granted to parent councils clearly enhances the output-legitimacy of these bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asses the implication of direct local executive election ('Pilkada Langsung') toward deepining democracy in Indonesia. Based on rapid appraisal study on the first wave of 'Pilkada Langsung' in Indonesia during 2005, this paper argues that the free, fair and non violence process in the series of 'Pilkada Langsung' to some extent indicates a maturity in Indonesian democraacy. The weakness on regulations and lack of managerial skills of local electoral commissions are still major obstacle that prevent further development of democracy. Furthermore,this paper suggests that 'Pikada Langsung' should be placed not only in procedura; processes but to promote democracy in a more substantive way and as a strategy to develop effective local governance

O artigo problematiza a relação entre representação política e reforma da democracia, mostrando tanto os deslocamentos analíticos das abordagens centradas no sistema político e na reconfiguração da representação quanto as omissões das literaturas preocupadas com a reforma ou o aprofundamento da democracia. Inovações teóricas e práticas para se pensar no futuro da representação parecem reunir elementos que traspassam as fronteiras da compreensão e da prática liberais da representação política. A partir do resgate crítico da idéia de "representação virtual", os autores sugerem, então, uma agenda de reforma da democracia capaz de incorporar essas inovações.The article issues on the relationship between political representation and democratic reform, presenting both analytic displacements from the approaches focused on the political system and the reshuffling of representation, and the omissions of the literature concerned on deepening democracy. Recent theoretical and practical innovations, which bring about much thinking on the future of representation, seem to assemble elements that supersede the limits of the liberal understanding and practice of political representation. Out of the critical rescue of the idea of "virtual representation", the authors suggest an agenda of democratic reform that could be able to account for those innovations.

After briefly describing the origins and recent history of agroecology, the author critically reflects on what makes agroecology fundamentally different from Climate-smart Agriculture (CSA). This article focuses in particular on the more transformative elements of the agroecology and food sovereignty paradigm to clearly identify overlaps and divergences with CSA and explore its incommensurable values against conventional development frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that citizen involvement helped to promote a more equitable distribution of public health services in Brazil. This achievement involved a balance of contributions from social actors and health system managers in forging policy innovations and institutional arrangements that linked bottom up innovation with national policy leveraging and decentralized implementation. The paper briefly describes this cycle and its relation with the implementation of a national network of forums for citizen involvement in health policy, inquiring in more detail the conditions that favor the association between these forums and the policy making process. Our results do not corroborate the idea that deliberative arenas should be insulated from political passions; rather, they suggest that participation of mobilized social actors contributes to the effectiveness of these forums. This contribution happens both due to the knowledge that these actors bring about problems in the area and to their insertion in networks that connect forums to a wide set of social organizations and political, governmental, and health institutions, which in turn facilitate the dissemination and negotiation of the proposals and demands formulated by the forums. However, our results also suggest that the inclusion of these actors increases confrontation to the detriment of deliberation, which brings us to the discussion of the role that could be played by mediators who are well-equipped to construct deliberative processes.

Aim This article offers a brief description and analysis of public participation in health in Brazil and England in order to highlight different motivators and tensions within an acceptance of participation as official policy. Sources/methods The article draws on a range of research in both countries and an analysis of official documents relating to participation. It is based on collaboration between researchers deriving from broad programmes of work on public participation in which the authors are involved. Argument There is a tension between different principles underpinning collective public involvement in health both within and between countries. Different aspirations or claims have been made about what such participation will achieve and there are trade-offs between design principles that have consequences for issues such as who takes part and thus also for what can be achieved. The democratic origins of public participation are more evident in the Brazilian situation than in England, but there are still questions about the inclusivity of the practices through which this is achieved. The English picture is both more diverse and dynamic, but formal decision-making power of participatory forums is less than in Brazil. Whilst social justice claims for participation have been made in both countries, there is as yet limited evidence that these have been realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]