Luiza Teixeira
decision‐making. So, the proposed model analysis describes an institutional design space that maps arenas of decision‐making in three dimensions.
In the first dimension, who participates, the focus is to analyze how the selection of participants occurs in the participation experience. It is important to know whether participants are representative of the population, or the public in general. Or even, if these people have sufficient information and expertise to make consistent judgments and take good decisions. Therefore, it is important in this dimension to analyze who is eligible to participate and how individuals can become participants. For the analysis of public participation initiatives, Fung( 2006) describes eight mechanisms of selection of participants, forming a spectrum ranging from a more inclusive mechanism, composed by all audiences, to a less inclusive mechanism, composed by the State Technical as shown in Figure 1, below:
Figure 1: Participant selection methods( Fung 2006: 68)
The second dimension of the cube refers to the way the communication and the decision making occurs in a collective way. This dimension analyzes how participants interact in a discussion or decision space. Fung( 2006) defines then, six modes of communication and decision making, ranging from the citizen role as a mere listener, in a public hearing, until the whole decision‐making by public officials. The six modes of communication( the first three) and decision( the other three) stand in a scale ranging from lower intensity to higher intensity. The intensity indicates the level of investment, knowledge and commitment required of participants. The categories presented by Fung( 2006) are described in Figure 2, below:
Figure 2: Modes of communication and decision( Fung 2006: 69)
The third dimension of the cube, extent of authority and power, analyzes the impact of public participation in the Government action. Five categories are presented to explain how participation influences the public officials’ decision making. The categories vary according to the degree of authority conferred to the decision taken by the citizen. On one side of the scale, in the first three mechanisms, participants have less authority and power in decision making. In the other end of the scale, in the last two mechanisms, participants have more authority and power in decision making. The five categories are described in Figure 3, below:
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