The evaluation of citizen participation in policymaking: Insights from Portugal.

ABSTRACT

While citizen participation in policymaking is on the rise worldwide, the scholarly debate centring around its evaluation has not developed to the same extent. The article discusses the methodology and findings of the evaluation of the project "Portugal Participa Caminhos para a Inovação Societal" which started at the end of 2014, and was implemented in 2015 and 2016, in Portugal. As the project promoted actions at both national and local levels, the evaluation accounted for both layers with a major focus on the analysis of procedures and outputs to examine its success. Through the application of a multi-method approach - data collection and analysis, cost-effectiveness assessment, interviews, pre-post surveys, and counterfactual focus groups - involving a wide array of agents - political representatives, civil servants, NGOs, citizens, national academia, and the funding sponsor - findings have helped retrieve three main insights that aim to contribute to future research on the evaluation of citizen participation in policymaking, which should shed light on the (re)connection of multiple agents; the role within the governance systems; and the pursuit of social inclusion.