Creative Governance via Citizen Oversight

It has been said that we need all the brains that we have and all the brains that we can borrow. Government administration can be much improved with the inputs from its citizens. In this regard, the Latin American countries provide excellent models of Creative Public Governance by establishing legal frameworks for Citizen Oversight.

Since I couldn’t find any definitions of Citizen Oversight on the web including Wikipedia, I have to create one. Here it is: Citizen Oversight is a legal framework where recognized citizen groups can act as watchdogs on the government for greater transparency , accountability and receptiveness to public opinion. I welcome readers to improve on this definition.

Though the Citizen Oversight systems differ from country to country in Latin America, what they have in common is a legal framework that allows citizens to keep watch over and monitor government action, such as "citizen assistance systems, oversight committees, participation in decision-making bodies, watchdog bodies, etc." Citizen oversight of public institutions and authorities is expanding in various shapes and forms in Latin America. It’s becoming more and more widely accepted by both the governments and their people.

One outstanding success is Brazil. Through its Citizen Oversight participation, Brazil now leads the world in participatory budgeting.

Another shining example is Chile. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet made a brave decision to place (on the web sites of ministries and public services) information at the public’s disposal, starting with the salaries of public employees and officials - something that no other previous administration had ever done.

Citizen Oversight is fast gaining popularity in the US too. A Google search on the term Citizen Oversight came out with 174,000 entries.

Comment

With easy access to the internet and increasing literacy levels, Citizen Oversight is a concept whose time has come. Surprisingly, it comes from what has often been perceived as repressive governments of Latin America rather than the advanced economies and open democratic political systems of the US and the European Union. Whatever it may be, it is not a matter of if but a matter of when, this concept will spread throughout the world. Governments should therefore prepare and take pro-active action to set up Citizen Oversight rather than have it forced on them by NGO pressure groups.

Talk on Creative Governance

Please email me at DrYKK@mindbloom.net if you want to invite me to present an illuminating one hour Talk on Creative Governance and thereafter to facilitate a session to help solve a prevailing public and social problem in the spirit of Creative Governance.

I would appreciate if you could share Creative Governance stories with me so that they could be featured here. Please forward your response and contributions to DrYKK@mindbloom.net