Improving Citizen Participation and Feedback in Your Bagh: AManual on Town Halls
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• Build trust between government and citizens
• Provide opportunities for government to convey informa-
tion to citizens
• Empower citizens to take an active role in government ac-
tivities
• Increase “buy in” by citizens into government decisions
Benefits of engagement
Citizen government engagement has the potential to ben-
efit both government and citizens. Beyond the potential
benefits listed above, regular discussion and engagement can
provide specific information and strengthen the social con-
tract between those who govern and their constituents.
Supply-side (government):
• Identification of priority issues
• Improved accessibility of government to citizens
• Strengthening of legitimacy of government
Demand-side (citizens):
• Better understanding of government structure and services
• Ability to speak directly to government
• Ability to provide input into decision-making
• Ability to hold government accountable
Your role as an elected official
It is important for government officials, especially those
who are elected, to understand they hold public office in or-
der to carry out the following two functions:
Serving the individual
– In a representative democrat-
ic system, the elected official has a primary responsibility to
serve citizens whom they represent. As part of this respon-
sibility, the official must make efforts to be accessible to the
individual, not only citizens as a group. This is important,
as individual constituents will likely have requests or needs
