Affiliations: [a] Texas Tech University, TX, USA | [b] University at Albany, NY, USA | College of Staten Island, City University of New York,
NY, USA | Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México,
Mexico | Information Science Institute, University of Southern
California, California, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Peter Muhlberger, TTU; Mass Comm Bldg.,
MS3082; Lubbock, TX 79409, USA. Tel.: +1 806 742 3385 x270; Fax: +1 806 742
1085; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Cyber-optimists anticipate that electronic media will serve as an
extensive public space, a virtual agora, that will re-engage the public with
politics and the policies that affect everyday life. For three years we were
involved in a U.S. National Science Foundation funded project designed to
enhance the participation of citizens in government agency rulemaking processes
using online public deliberation and Natural Language Processing technologies.
Despite a promising approach in an important arena for direct and regular
public engagement, the project was met with serious obstacles in trying to
secure a partnership with a government agency or interest groups. This led us
to consider the policy process literature for insights regarding the obstacles
we faced. That literature, a mainstay in the public policy and public
administration curriculum in the U.S. and an attempt to capture how policy
makers actually make decisions, heavily focuses on institutional actors and
their adversarial relationships. Yet, it provides for hardly any role for the
public to participate in what ideally should be a democratic process. Important
components of the literature imply that institutional actors should discourage
direct public engagement. The analysis seeks to clarify leverage points and
contexts that could be used to promote online public engagement as a regular
component of government processes.
