The Citizen Input Process -- DoesInput Equal Participation?

 The Citizen Input Process – Does Input Equal Participation? Some citizens, and the local governments that represent them, have become increasingly aware of the need for citizen voice to be incorporated into the decision making processes of local government. This phenomenon has received some study, particularly from the vantage of citizens and their perceptions of the participation process. Views from the organization side have been woefully lacking. It is this void that the proposed paper addresses. Data will be gathered from the City of Elgin, Illinois about their budget process. The City believes it makes a significant effort to involve both citizen leaders and “regular” citizens in the budget process. Yet several questions have not yet been raised. These include whether citizens see their role as providing information, providing support for decisions already made, or actually influencing decisions; how members of the local government administration feel about the information generated and how that information can and is utilized; and what empirical evidence exists to support either of those two perspectives. To begin to answer these questions, public meetings of the budget will be attended by the researchers and surveys administered of the parties involved in the input process. As this is work that focuses on both sides of the participation equation, it seems likely that some integration of perceptions will be needed. The precise relationships and influences have yet to be seen, and therefore few hypotheses currently exist. The utility of the research relies on the fact that the evidence gathered here will both inform the field of public administration and political science by providing a well rounded understanding of a single participation event from at least two sides who are involved in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]