From Passive Recipients to Active Participants: A Systematic Literature Review of Citizen Participation in Street-Level Bureaucracies

Ricotta, Anthony; Generet, Coline; Moyson, Stéphane; Schiffino, Nathalie; Schoenaers, Frédéric

doi:10.1002/epa2.70019

Article (Scientific journals)

From Passive Recipients to Active Participants: A Systematic Literature Review of Citizen Participation in Street-Level Bureaucracies

Ricotta, Anthony; Generet, Coline; Moyson, Stéphane et al.

2025 • In European Policy Analysis

Peer reviewed

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/342453

DOI
10.1002/epa2.70019

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Keywords :

compliance; opposition; persuasion; public encounters; systematic review; Sociology and Political Science; Public Administration; Political Science and International Relations; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Abstract :

[en] How do citizens participate in interactions with street-level bureaucrats? We systematically reviewed 50 studies and identified a repertoire of citizens' attitudes and behaviors, ranging from compliance to opposition, with exit as a last resort. We related them to civil servants' practices using Tummers et al.'s (2015) typology. Citizens' attitudes and behaviors include: compliance with formal rules, informal practices, and officers; attempts at persuasion, such as negotiation, begging, complaints, and blaming; forms of opposition, including resistance, manipulation, lie and aggressiveness; and exit, manifested as either avoiding encounters or disengaging psychologically from interactions. Compliant and persuasive citizens tend to prompt officers to move toward them. Those who exit can push officers to move away. Opposition tends to lead civil servants to either move away or toward, depending on how it is expressed. These results deconstruct the image of citizens as passive recipients and reposition them as active participants in frontline public services.

Disciplines :

Political science, public administration & international relations

Author, co-author :

Ricotta, Anthony ; Institut de Sciences Politiques Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE), Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Chaussée de Binche, Belgium

Generet, Coline; Centre de Recherche et d'Interventions Sociologiques (CRIS), Université de Liége (ULiége), Liége, Belgium

Moyson, Stéphane ; Institut de Sciences Politiques Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE), Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Chaussée de Binche, Belgium

Schiffino, Nathalie ; Institut de Sciences Politiques Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE), Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Chaussée de Binche, Belgium

Schoenaers, Frédéric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales > Sociologie des ressources humaines et des systèmes institutionnels

Language :

English

Title :

From Passive Recipients to Active Participants: A Systematic Literature Review of Citizen Participation in Street-Level Bureaucracies

Publication date :

2025

Journal title :

European Policy Analysis

eISSN :

2380-6567

Publisher :

John Wiley and Sons Inc

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/epa2.70019

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique

Funding text :

This study was supported by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique \u2013 FNRS), grant nr. T.0152.18.

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