So many of the people we spoke to said they don’t feel they can talk to their government.
Understanding what legitimacy means today and what governments can do to strengthen it must be a priority or it will become increasingly difficult for governments to function well or work for you.
That’s why we, at the Centre for Public Impact, have embarked upon a worldwide listening project. We want to know, what does legitimacy mean to you?
Three ways you can get involved:
This is an ongoing, global research project – we need your input, feedback, views and opinions, wherever you are, and whatever type of government you live under
The CPI works with governments around the world, to support them in engaging with their citizens and producing impact.
Visit us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter – use the hashtag #FindingLegitimacy and tell us what legitimacy means to you.
Loading ... Loading ... Loading ...We’d like to know how you feel about legitimacy.
You can get in touch with your views on what legitimacy is, what it should be or could be, or how much of it you feel your government has.
Share your responses to these questions, or tell us anything that comes to mind when you think about Legitimacy.
We’re speaking to citizens, experts, academics, civil servants and politicians all over the world, to find out what legitimacy means to them.
It’s an on-going conversation, and it’s too soon to make any firm conclusions about legitimacy, but we’re finding that many of the views we hear fall into five emerging themes – each as important as the other – that describe people’s feelings about government, and ways in which governments can grow their legitimacy:
Whether these themes strike a chord with you, or if your view of legitimacy is something completely different, tell us your thoughts over on our Facebook page
Many governments – local and national – civil society organisations and people worldwide are already working hard to develop a healthy ongoing relationship.
Here are some examples of what can be achieved…
The Bangladeshi Government established Access to Innovation (a2i) Public Service Innovation Lab+ to ensure easy, affordable, inclusive and reliable access to quality public services which harness the power of digital. To understand and prioritise areas for improvement, senior civil servants acted as “secret shoppers” to better understand what life is like for citizens accessing services outside of their ministry or area of expertise. Following this experience, they encouraged staff in their departments to develop bold, innovative solutions that improve the service experience for the public. In order to communicate about these initiatives, and garner feedback from the public, the Prime Minister’s Office maintains a website providing updates on pilots, success and failures. The website also provides access to policy briefs, infographics and any external publications about a2i.
In 2012, the government of New Zealand has launched Better Public Services, a reform agenda aimed to improving the quality of public services. Core to this initiative is the development of ten priority outcomes. These include areas such as welfare dependence and vulnerable children, but also population skills and government interaction. Outcome 10 states that New Zealanders should feel comfortable completing their transactions with the government in a digital environment and the target is for 20 of the identified most common public services to have 80% digital update by 2021. Progress is constantly measured against performance targets and a Chief Executive and a Minister have been appointed to track each of the outcomes. Another core objective of the Better Public Services initiative is to encourage cross-agency collaboration and provide an experience tailored to the service users. For instance, the government of New Zealand imagines public services around life events such as the birth of a child, in order to provide an individual platform for people to access relevant information.
Aiming to increase citizen participation in the process of becoming “the most functional city in the world”, service designers and civil servants in the City of Helsinki developed a new approach to engagement. They developed a game that city service teams, for example in libraries or hospitals, play in order to explore and plan client participation. The game helps employees to embed participatory methods into their day to day work, leading to greater uptake and support. The game is facilitated by a designer who ensures that the ideas produced in the game translate into practice. So far, plenty of new ideas have been put into action. Art lovers, for example, can now adopt statues in their local parks and participate in maintenance and upkeep. Increasing citizens’ participation is not the only purpose of the game: it also helps civil servants to better understand how citizens use their service and how important these are to their lives.
