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Governments increasingly engage individual citizens in the policy-making process and also in contexts where civil society organisations (CSOs) traditionally play a substantial role in this process by advocating for the interests and needs of their constituencies. Moreover, CSOs are in the position to enhance or obstruct different modes of individual citizen participation. The question of under which circumstances do CSOs find citizen participation modes legitimate is therefore important. We performed a multiple case study fitting a theoretical framework consisting of four different modes of individual citizen participation in local governments that affect CSOs. Our analyses are based on a framework of perceived legitimacy, including input, throughput and output legitimacy. Our results show that CSOs' perceptions of legitimacy vary depending on the individual citizen participation mode and are nuanced by CSOs' role in the initiative and by their trust in the local government.

In recent years, the concept of network governance has become a central theme in public administration literature. Our study gauges the level of receptivity to the networking model among the three sectors: government, business and civil society, represented by 24 key individuals occupying leadership positions in their organizations. The West Bank is the focus of our analysis as it is formalizing its network governance model that arose out of necessity during the Covid-19 pandemic. We identify the attitudes of those networks tasked with implementing the programme, thereby highlighting where opportunities for successful implementation exist and where barriers can be overcome. Q methodology was chosen for collecting, processing and analyzing data as it is most adept at measuring individual perceptions. The article identifies three very closely aligned perspectives. All are supportive of the proposed change in governance arrangements. The research identifies subtly different expectations among stakeholders on network governance and raises questions about the suitability of network governance for the fragile society. It also suggests a parallel education program on the role of stakeholders in a different system of governance, if the reform is to be a success.

Canadian cannabis legalization was destined to produce implementation gaps: it is a wicked policy issue, imbued with moral connotations, involving multiple levels of government, and formulated in an uncertain context. Those factors all pave the way for policy ambiguities. But why do these ambiguities appear? How do they shape the behavior of policy stakeholders? In this paper, we argue that, in order to manage the unique challenges of cannabis legalization, governments and central agencies rely on preemptive blame avoidance strategies. Ambiguities ensuing from the use of those strategies in turn enhance the responsibilities of implementers, while also limiting their capacity. We narrow down our analysis to the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, who have two contrasting regulatory models. Using data from semi-structured interviews and the grey literature, we highlight how ambiguities over the explicit and implicit objectives of legalization create opportunities to eschew blame. We find that blame avoidance structures policy resources and widens existing implementation gaps. Overall, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of blame avoidance in shaping implementation gaps.

That the Irish housing system is perceived to be in crisis is not a recent phenomenon. Reports of inquiry have catalogued recurring housing crises and policy failings over the last century. It is the difference between historical and more contemporary public policy responses to housing crisis that both informs and forms the basis of this paper. Through historic document review, augmented by interviews with social historians and key decision-makers, the processes which led to policy responses to previous housing events are traced and compared to those of the current crisis. The research identifies the characteristics of policy change, highlighting similarities in policymaking processes that unfolded over time, from problem identification to the instigation of political action and policy design. This paper therefore offers a historical approach to contextualize contemporary policymaking. By learning from the past current policymakers are offered a means to overcome the permanent state of flux between housing being a problem and a crisis, though there are also salient lessons for policymakers in other fields of public policymaking.

Does the source of expert advice really matter? Current literature generally considers the content, medium, and style of presentation of expertise to the wider audience. This exploratory study investigates whether an expert's gender and national identity influence how potential policy-makers view and consider adopting the expert's advice. The inquiry is wholly focused on the Armenian context. Primary survey/quasi-experimental research was undertaken using a sample of current social science graduate students in Yerevan to investigate whether expert advice is considered differently depending on the gender and national identity of the expert giving the advice. Quantitative data analysis was undertaken to determine the relationship between the independent variables of advisor gender (male/female), and national identity (local Armenians/diaspora Armenians/ foreigners), and the dependent variable of participants' perceived value of advice from each expert source. Preliminary research findings indicate that expert source characteristics matter very little in determining whether expertise is valued. Instead, personal convictions seem to matter most when assessing the value of expertise as indicated by the high levels of policy consistency. These results have wider implications for furthering our understanding of potential underlying biases when considering advice in the Armenian policymaking process.