Call for Book Chapters:​ "Political Participation: Citizen Input in Government"

Vernon Press invites book chapters for a forthcoming edited volume on the subject of "Political Participation: Citizen Input in Government."

Citizen participation in government is a pillar of any democratic form of government. Participation is not only an important component of popular sovereignty and government accountability, but it also encourages government legitimacy, representation, trust, and innovation within the government and broader community. Citizen interactions with government come in many forms. Oftentimes citizen input is thought of as an action that a citizen takes to participate in governmental process. 

These processes can involve a range of activities such as voting, providing feedback, activism and creating or joining interest groups, or even the use of online platforms to carry out actions. Inactive citizen involvement is also a means for citizens to provide input in government. This can take many forms such as non-voting, limited awareness of topics of consideration, or even something as simple as not participating in the governmental processes mentioned above. Although beneficial for democracy, citizen participation is a collective action problem and therefore achieving a high level of engagement from citizens includes many costs both for individuals and for the organization, such as financial, and in areas of effectiveness and efficiency. 

Recently, political division teamed with the policies and outcomes from the pandemic have produced a wide range of activity and inactivity among citizens at all levels of government. However, these recent events have been met with other advents, such as digital technologies, a greater discussion and awareness of inequality and marginalized individuals, and government partnerships. These items, individually and collectively, have the potential to alter the current and future of public engagement in government.   

This edited volume will bring forth a wide swath of scholars from different disciplines in an effort to discuss citizen participation from an interdisciplinary perspective. This approach will bring a unique mixture that provides a greater level of diversity and discussion concerning citizen input.

Possible contributions include (but are not limited to):

• Public participation
• Civic engagement
• Transparency and open government
• E-Government and digital citizenship
• Social equity and citizen inclusion
• Public opinion and survey research
• Political behavior
• Political participation
• Political communication
• Public policy and citizen input
• Democratic theory and citizenship

Please submit an abstract no longer than 500 words with a brief bio note to volume editor, James Cockerham at james.cockerham@montreat.edu by October 31, 2023.