Fredrik M. Sjoberg Tiago Peixoto World Bank World Bank Jonathan Mellon Nuffield College, University of Oxford , United Kingdom The Effect of Bureaucratic Responsiveness on Citizen Participation Fredrik M. Sjoberg is a Abstract : What effect does bureaucratic responsiveness have on citizen participation? Since the 1940s, attitudinal political scientist who studies political participation and governance. In his work, measures of perceived efficacy have been used to explain participation. The authors develop a “calculus of he uses advanced empirical methods, participation” that incorporates objective efficacy—the extent to which an individual ’ s participation actually has including experimental methods. He an impact—and test the model against behavioral data from the online application Fix My Street (n = 399,364). has worked for the World Bank since 2013. He also has experience with the A successful first experience using Fix My Street is associated with a 57 percent increase in the probability of an European Union and the United Nations individual submitting a second report, and the experience of bureaucratic responsiveness to the first report submitted Development Programme. He has has predictive power over all future report submissions. The findings highlight the importance of responsiveness for held postdoctoral appointments at Columbia University and New York University. fostering an active citizenry while demonstrating the value of incidentally collected data to examine participatory E-mail:
[email protected] behavior at the individual level. Jonathan Mellon is a research fellow Practitioner Points at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, working on the British • For practitioners aiming to promote uptake in participatory processes, the research shows that genuine Election Study.