Participation and Constitutionalism

This essay addresses two related questions: is participation by citizens in administrative decision-making constitutionally regulated? And if so, to what extent and in what circumstances? Obviously, answers to these questions may vary from one constitutional system to another. The limited aim of the essay is briefly to survey some of those answers and suggest how they might be explained. I will not attempt to state comprehensively the relevant law of any jurisdiction, but I will draw illustrations and examples from several. Nor (for reasons of space) will I tackle any of the underlying theoretical, empirical and practical questions about the functions, effects, costs and benefits of participation and its constitutional regulation. Nevertheless, the essay's modest objective is worth pursuing in order to provide a clear analytical framework for consideration of such questions. Much of the very large literature on participation does not expressly advert to its constitutional regulation.