The duty invites you once again to the back roads of university life. A proposal that is both scholarly and intimate, to be picked up all summer long like a postcard. Today, we are looking at a partnership between Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie and Strasbourg, around the development of the space.
Public administrations are faced with increasingly difficult problems that resist simple solutions. Whether it concerns housing, health, climate, education or simply the direction of traffic on a public road, the implications are often large and complex. Each decision must take into account the intertwining of problems and phenomena, the positions of the actors and anticipate the cross-effects of the measures chosen.
The literature identifies two major weaknesses that administrations face in solving such problems: the representation deficit – when administrations do not sufficiently reflect the diversity of the society they serve – and the participation deficit – when citizen participation mechanisms struggle to meet the high expectations of citizens in the face of often limited possibilities.
Representative bureaucracy aims to create a public administration that more accurately reflects the socio-demographic composition of the population it serves. This model seeks to include representatives of diverse social, ethnic, and gender backgrounds in public institutions to better understand and respond to the diverse needs of society. Representative bureaucracy, however, has its limitations.
While it contributes to greater fairness and fosters a certain legitimacy, it can be hampered by inherent biases. For example, achieving demographic diversity does not automatically guarantee active advocacy for the interests of different social groups. Some civil servants, even those from minorities, may not feel empowered or encouraged to actively advocate for the interests of their group of origin.
Citizen participation advocates for more direct democracy by increasing citizens’ involvement in decision-making processes. The goal is to enable citizens to be actively involved in decisions that affect their lives. However, citizen participation is not without its challenges. It can often lack representativeness and effectiveness. More marginalized groups are often underrepresented in these processes, and the time it takes to make decisions can hamper urgent action.
Combining forces
To overcome the respective limitations of citizen participation and representative bureaucracy, we have experimented with a process that combines representativeness of the administration and citizen participation. It involves systematically integrating citizens into administrative structures to address complex issues, based on the principles of representativeness and active engagement. This model has proven effective in addressing projects such as the universal basic income in the Gironde region of France, by integrating citizens from diverse social and economic backgrounds into the decision-making process.
Urban planning issues in cities are other perfect examples. These places are already “appropriated”, which means that we never start from scratch and that we must necessarily change their vocation. They serve both as places of passage for some and as places of life for others. It is therefore necessary to facilitate the movement of the former and to offer spaces where the latter can settle down, by integrating regulatory constraints while ensuring the safety of these spaces. In addition, these public spaces welcome populations with specific and often contradictory needs, which adds an additional layer of complexity to their development.
Let’s take two concrete examples. In Strasbourg, Karl-Ferdinand Braun Square, Kuhn Street and Kageneck Street are a perfect illustration of this. This area is located near the train station where thousands of passengers pass through each year. There are homes, shops, a daycare, a business school, etc. There are also security challenges, as is often the case in areas close to train stations.
In Montreal, in Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, there is a space along Marquette Street known as Île aux volcans. Its residents quickly appropriated this space (initially designed as a temporary development), especially children, as a play area. For safety reasons, however, it is time to find a more permanent vocation for this space and redevelop it accordingly.
Rather than hiding the challenges they faced, these cities chose to embrace their complexity. At the start of the school year, a panel of citizens will meet at each of these sites to work directly with the administration and experts to design a development that will best address all of the issues.
All these wonderful people will thus open up to more diversity and points of view, which will allow them to consider, together, themes such as natural resources, mobility, culture, social issues or the management of public space, before giving a final concerted opinion. To do this, they will consider all possible options based on existing constraints to propose optimal development scenarios.
Better still, Rosemont and Strasbourg will work hand in hand following the same model and the same schedule, in order to learn from each other’s approach and thoughts.
This example illustrates how local governments can leverage the combined strengths of representative bureaucracy and citizen participation. By integrating citizens into decision-making processes and ensuring that public administration more broadly reflects the diversity of their population, cities can create public spaces that are more responsive to the diverse needs of society.
This model helps to strengthen the legitimacy of decisions taken in addition to promoting broader inclusion and a better understanding of local issues. By opening the administration to a multitude of points of view, the solutions proposed become more comprehensive and better adapted to the realities of each person for more sustainable and united prosperity.