Some Ways to Get Public Feedback
There are some ways to get feedback from public regarding the services they provide. Some of them are-
- Citizen Surveys: Citizen surveys provide both detailed and aggregate data on attitudes and expectations. It can be a source of valuable information on a diffuse public where all the relevant social groups are statistically represented. A well-known type of citizen survey is the opinion poll.
- Public Inquiries: Public Inquiries are designed to investigate and report on a specific issue, and are conducted by a person with judicial powers. These inquiries can help in specific instances, but are expensive and time-consuming.
- Public Hearings: Public hearings are often mandated by law for proposed project proposals, give experts and the general public a structured opportunity to question public officials. Public hearings tend to strengthen the legitimacy of proposals.
A Case Study: Deliberation Council as a Feedback Mechanism
Deliberation councils are forums through which stakeholders and the executive exchange information and discuss policies to resolve specific problems.
Singapore has set up a National Crime Prevention Council which is composed of representatives from civil society, professional bodies and universities. The council commissions studies on various issues relating to the incident of different criminal activities.
The key to the success of these councils is their capacity to act as a credible mechanism for the government to show its commitment, and their focus on clear, relatively narrow, sets of issues.
Read More: Role of Citizen Charter as a mechanism of voice
Role of Public Feedback as a Mechanism of Voice
As a mechanism of voice, the role of public feedback are as follows-
- Public Empowerment: Through public feedback, opinion of the people about the different activities of administration are collected and people are also asked to provide proper prevention of this. By this, public empowerment is ensured.
- Success Implementation: Peoples involvement in any government services realized them that their expectations will be fulfilled. With this hope, they help in implementing willingly.
- Attention on Public Interest: By public feedback people’s expectations to administration can be identified. So public services can be provide accordance with the public interest.
- Importance on Decentralization: By feedback mechanism, decisions are taken with the participation of people. So, here decentralized decisions are made instead of centralization.
