Civic engagement as an outcome for the public administration: opportunities and limits of participatory governance

One of the most important aspects of public administration effectiveness is the achievement of consensus of the community. In this sense, the implementation of public policies involving an active civic engagement appears as a key factor for public organizations, particularly for those which the closest to the territory, such as local authorities. Participatory governance, which can have several ways of application, may be considered as a tool of support for the pursuit of these objectives. However, the reality shows that the effective development of participatory governance from theory to practice implies some relevant difficulties, both for the processes implementation and for the performance measurement.