A Social Commons Ethos in Public Policy-Making
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ORIGINAL PAPER
A Social Commons Ethos in Public Policy‑Making Jennifer Lees‑Marshment1 · Aimee Dinnin Huff2 · Neil Bendle3 Received: 12 December 2018 / Accepted: 16 July 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In the business ethics literature, a commons paradigm orients theorizing toward how civil society can promote collaboration and collectively govern shared resources, and implicates the common good—the ethics of providing social conditions that enable individuals and collectives to thrive. In the context of representative democracies, the shared resources of a nation can be considered commons, yet these resources are governed in a top-down, bureaucratic manner wherein public participation is often limited to voting for political leaders. Such governance, however, can be motivated by values of solidarity and stewardship, and a bottom-up approach to participation, in ways that are consistent with a social commons ethos (Meyer and Hudon in J Bus Ethics 160:277–292, 2019). We employ an inductive methodology focused on successes and possibilities, using data from interviews with 93 policy-makers and national-level government leaders in 5 democratic countries, and observational and archival data. We reveal how governments can operationalize a social commons ethos in decision-making. This approach to governance involves stakeholder engagement that is Broad, Deep, and Continual (BDC). In this model, leaders engage a wide breadth of stakeholders, engage them deeply and meaningfully throughout the decision-making process, and sustain this engagement in a continual manner. Implications for governance of non-governmental bureaucracies are discussed, including the normative and strategic benefits of engaging stakeholders in this manner. Keywords Commons paradigm · Social commons · Common good · Appreciative inquiry · Stakeholder input · Public consultation
Introduction In modern representative democracies, characterized by topdown governance from elected leaders, many of today’s most pressing and complex social, political, and economic problems stem from tensions around policy-making processes. Jennifer Lees-Marshment and Aimee Dinnin Huff have contributed equally. * Neil Bendle [email protected] Jennifer Lees‑Marshment j.lees‑[email protected] Aimee Dinnin Huff [email protected] 1
University of Auckland, Social Sciences Building, 10 Symonds Street, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
2
College of Business, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA
3
Terry College of Business, University of Georgia, Benson Hall, 630 S. Lumpkin St., Athens, GA 30602, USA
The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union is a recent example of such tensions. Traditionally, public participation in policy-making is limited to voting for political candidates, and, sometimes, to voting in a referendum. However, a more collaborative approach to governance can enable democratic societies to address challenges related to policy-making through deeper engagement of the public in the decision-making process
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