Stricto sensu VS lato sensu? Regulating Participatory Processes Between «The Force of Law» and «The Force of Will»

Abstract

In the last decade, different countries and governance levels have institutionalised several participatory mechanisms through a wide range of diverse regulatory practices. This paper focuses on how and to what extent various forms of regulation drive creativity and incentives, or generate stiffness which risk to atrophy and jeopardise participatory processes’ capacity to create substantive forms of citizens’ engagement in policymaking. The authors propose some reflections on the «liaisons dangereuses» between the guarantee of continuity and the risks of ritualisation and ossification of the various forms of participatory processes’ regulation, and on their ability to establish themselves as permanent innovative laboratories of creativity, spaces of responsibilisation of different actors towards common interests and resilience, and adaptability of procedures.