Government After Shock - Connection Lost? Managing the Relationship Between Policymakers and Citizens in Times of Crisis and Beyond

On November 17 at 17:00-19:00 CET, the Open European Dialogue network members met for an exclusive OED Policy Deep-Dive to discuss the implications of the coronavirus on the connection between citizens and their elected representatives.

In this 120-minute Zoom dialogue, parliamentarians explored the following questions:

• How has social distancing challenged the connection between politicians and their constituents?
• How has the health and economic crisis affected public trust in decisionmakers?
• Are lockdown protests a symptom of a more general dealignment of citizens’ needs with government action?
• How can elected representatives reassure citizens during unnerving times?
• What tools and what communication strategies could assist policymakers in reimagining their relationship with citizens both in times of crisis and beyond?

In this conversation, we heard from Donatella della Porta, professor of political science and political sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Nigel Harvey, professor of judgment and decision research at University College London, and Coen Pustjens, program director and Covid-19 response tools coordinator at the National Democratic Institute.

Open European Dialogue x Government After Shock

This inter-parliamentary exchange is a part of Government After Shock, a global event promoted by the OECD’s Observatory of Public Sector Innovation that explores the future of government beyond crisis. This global dialogue took place on November 17 and was made up of over 50 conversations held all around the world, covering an array of regional and thematic angles. A high-level forum was held on the following day, November 18, and sought to make sense of the input received from the global dialogue participants to formulate a ‘Call to Action’ for governments, challenging them to think about the future of government beyond this crisis.

The Observatory for Public Sector Innovation

The Observatory for Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) is the OECD’s global forum for uncovering emerging practices and to identify what’s next in the public sector realm. In a time of increasing complexity, rapidly changing demands, and considerable fiscal pressures, governments need to understand, test, and embed new ways of doing things.

OPSI works with governments to understand and encourage new approaches to address society’s complex problems by empowering public servants with new insights, knowledge, tools, and connections to help them explore new possibilities.

About the format: OED120 POLICY DEEP-DIVES

As a response to the current crisis, the Open European Dialogue launched its new OED 120 Policy Deep-Dive format. 120 minutes for facilitated online dialogue among members of parliament to receive a concise briefing, ask questions to experts and discuss, with colleagues, narrowly defined topics. The OED provides professional facilitation to extract the most value out of the discussions. This way, policymakers get the chance to share their perspectives with their colleagues, while having topic expertise on hand for questions and clarifications. Topics are chosen as they emerge through other network activities as ripe for a more in-depth discussion, or they are suggested by members of the network, or flagged by the network of OED researchers and experts. MP network members can initiate these calls and volunteer their expertise on a topic of their choosing.