When Barack Obama released his memorandum on 'Transparency and Open Government' the day after he was inaugurated as the 44th US President it was music to the ears for organisations involved in public participation. His instructions that "departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperate among themselves...with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals" attunes exactly with the objectives of peopleandparticipation.net. This memo helped launch the new administration's 'Open Government Initiative' with its focus on three principles in the workings of government: 'Transparency', 'Participation', and 'Collaboration'. In support of this, the US National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation has recently published its own seven core principles for public engagement (available here and akin to Involve's own principles published last year).

Both initiatives are positive steps towards more open government in the US. They also serve to highlight the issue of public participation in the UK, especially given the recent expenses scandal which has been well documented recently. The story saw daily revelations of MP's expenses secrets, and how a system could be in place to allow its continuance. As a result the issue may lead to a political form of "creative destruction" as in recent weeks there have been calls for change to make the expenses allowance more accountable. Gordon Brown, for one, has been quick to promise a 'National Council for Democratic Renewal' to help this. One other proposal has come from Carey Oppenheimer at the Institute for Public Policy Research. She suggests forming a citizen's convention made up of 150-200 citizens who meet in a town hall format to take evidence and propose ideas for reform. This is similar to the methods already employed (and listed on this site) by public participation specialists. In a roundabout way the furore over MP's expenses is good news as it may result in greater reform as well as greater debate of the issues in public participation. It also comes at a time when participation is being more actively pursued by the new Obama administration in the United States.