Representation in Nonelected Participatory Processes: How Residents Understand the Role of Nonprofit Community-based Organizations

Abstract

Increasing public participation in administrative decision making has become an important goal in many public agencies. To determine who should participate in an open decision-making process, many public agencies develop purposive selection strategies to counteract the obvious biases that arise from self-selection. To accomplish this, leaders of nonprofit organizations, assumed to represent the views of the residents they serve, are often asked to serve as community representatives in a variety of participatory processes. As these nonelected representatives are not formally authorized or accountable, more knowledge is needed about the degree to which residents perceive this representation as legitimate. We use a mixed-methods approach to address whether residents believe nonprofit community-based organizations can play a legitimate representational role, what organizational characteristics they see as contributing to legitimate representation, and whether they view certain types of organizations as better embodying these characteristics. Findings reveal that residents believe nonprofit community-based organizations could make good representatives. Perceptions of the representative’s communication process and ability to produce tangible outcomes led to increased trust of a potential representative, a crucial precursor to legitimate nonelected representation. Although more research is needed to confirm whether these views are broadly generalizable, these findings begin to provide guidance to agencies seeking legitimate community representatives to serve in participatory processes.

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