ABSTRACT

In recent decades, citizen participation has become an instrument for deepening democracy and qualifying public management. Following this trend, some pioneering open government initiatives have included participation as one of their key principles. However, field literature has superficially discussed the meaning and characteristics of participation as a principle of open government. Therefore, this study aims to discuss different ways of classifying citizen participation and distinguish which of its characteristics are considered adequate as an open government principle. The results demonstrate that citizen participation in the open government context must go beyond simple consultations, as it is necessary to guarantee citizens’ protagonism and involvement in political decisions. There must be real and active participation, in which citizens are part of the policy process and decision-making, contributing to strengthening citizenship, deliberative democracy, and the legitimacy of decisions.

Keywords:
open government; citizen participation; social participation; participation typologies; governance