Civil Dialogue: obstacle and solutions. A meta-analysis of the empirical evidence

“Civil dialogue” as a system for communication between public authorities and the representatives of the local community is by now a well-established practice, up to the point that it is mandated in a broad variety of settings at national, sub-national and local levels. Branded under many different names (participatory democracy, deliberative engagement, stakeholder inclusion, interactive decision-making, citizen participation, collaborative governance, etc.), it entails the same basic principle: involving citizens, social organizations and, broadly speaking, relevant stakeholders in policy-making since the early stages of the policy cycle to enhance the quality and legitimacy of policy decisions. The authors performed a meta-analysis of the English-language scholarly literature analysing practical examples of civil dialogue, in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the problems, barriers and threats to the implementation of this practice, as well as of the techniques and processes that have characterised successful public inclusion. This paper outlines and discusses the key insights emerging from the meta-analysis.