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Public participation in crisis policymaking. How 30,000 Dutch citizens advised their government on relaxing COVID-19 lockdown measures

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  • Niek Mouter
  • Jose Ignacio Hernandez
  • Anatol Valerian Itten

Abstract

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, governments took unprecedented measures to curb the spread of the virus. Public participation in decisions regarding (the relaxation of) these measures has been notably absent, despite being recommended in the literature. Here, as one of the exceptions, we report the results of 30,000 citizens advising the government on eight different possibilities for relaxing lockdown measures in the Netherlands. By making use of the novel method Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE), participants were asked to recommend which out of the eight options they prefer to be relaxed. Participants received information regarding the societal impacts of each relaxation option, such as the impact of the option on the healthcare system. The results of the PVE informed policymakers about people’s preferences regarding (the impacts of) the relaxation options. For instance, we established that participants assign an equal value to a reduction of 100 deaths among citizens younger than 70 years and a reduction of 168 deaths among citizens older than 70 years. We show how these preferences can be used to rank options in terms of desirability. Citizens advised to relax lockdown measures, but not to the point at which the healthcare system becomes heavily overloaded. We found wide support for prioritising the re-opening of contact professions. Conversely, participants disfavoured options to relax restrictions for specific groups of citizens as they found it important that decisions lead to “unity” and not to “division”. 80% of the participants state that PVE is a good method to let citizens participate in government decision-making on relaxing lockdown measures. Participants felt that they could express a nuanced opinion, communicate arguments, and appreciated the opportunity to evaluate relaxation options in comparison to each other while being informed about the consequences of each option. This increased their awareness of the dilemmas the government faces.

Suggested Citation

  • Niek Mouter & Jose Ignacio Hernandez & Anatol Valerian Itten, 2021. "Public participation in crisis policymaking. How 30,000 Dutch citizens advised their government on relaxing COVID-19 lockdown measures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-42, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0250614
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250614
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sabat, Iryna & Neuman-Böhme, Sebastian & Varghese, Nirosha Elsem & Barros, Pedro Pita & Brouwer, Werner & van Exel, Job & Schreyögg, Jonas & Stargardt, Tom, 2020. "United but divided: Policy responses and people’s perceptions in the EU during the COVID-19 outbreak," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(9), pages 909-918.
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    1. Rotteveel, Adriënne H. & Lambooij, Mattijs S. & van Exel, Job & de Wit, G. Ardine, 2022. "To what extent do citizens support the disinvestment of healthcare interventions? An exploration of the support for four viewpoints on active disinvestment in the Netherlands," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    2. Mulderij, Lisanne S. & Hernández, José Ignacio & Mouter, Niek & Verkooijen, Kirsten T. & Wagemakers, Annemarie, 2021. "Citizen preferences regarding the public funding of projects promoting a healthy body weight among people with a low income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    3. Mouter, Niek & Jara, Karen Trujillo & Hernandez, Jose Ignacio & Kroesen, Maarten & de Vries, Martijn & Geijsen, Tom & Kroese, Floor & Uiters, Ellen & de Bruin, Marijn, 2022. "Stepping into the shoes of the policy maker: Results of a Participatory Value Evaluation for the Dutch long term COVID-19 strategy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    4. Zongxiang Wang & Tianhao Chen & Wei Li & Kai Zhang & Jianwu Qi, 2023. "Construction and Demonstration of the Evaluation System of Public Participation Level in Urban Planning Based on the Participatory Video of ‘General Will—Particular Will’," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, January.
    5. Hernandez, Jose Ignacio & van Cranenburgh, Sander & Chorus, Caspar & Mouter, Niek, 2023. "Data-driven assisted model specification for complex choice experiments data: Association rules learning and random forests for Participatory Value Evaluation experiments," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).

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