Kettering Foundation

Media Center

Videos

  • "The process of involving people, even if they have different points of view, maybe conflicting points of view, is very important."

    Svetlana Chernikova

  • Coping With the Cost of Health Care:

    What Is The Public Voice?

    Video Podcast

  • "We can improve the conversation and that directly impacts people's lives."

    Martin Carcasson

  • DDEX

  • Ibtesam, Rhanda Slim

    Mideast Network

  • "In our research, we look at what ideas community leaders have about the role of the public in deliberating issues and forming policy."

    Alberto Olivas

  • "When I'm working with the different Pacific Island communities, I must make sure that their way of being is always respected and regarded."

    Moerangi Falaoa

  • "You can't sustain an urban community without the voice of its citizens."

    Louise Spiegel

  • "Students have more of a sense that 'maybe we can do that, too.'"

    Katy Harriger

Podcasts

  • David Mathews discusses Education Research
  • Speaking of Politics Interview

Public-Public Government

Governments, at all levels, and the political system in general have suffered from a significant loss of public confidence. Likewise, government officials don’t always have confidence in the ability of citizens to carry out their responsibilities in a democracy. This is more than a public relations problem because these institutions can’t do their job unless citizens do theirs.

In the Public Government area, Kettering asks one main question: “How does the work done in institutions affect the work that citizens must do?”

Kettering studies how officeholders respond to demonstrations of what the public does through, among other things, public deliberation and public work.

From the citizens’ perspective, the foundation studies how both elected and appointed or administrative officeholders can align their work with the democratic practices that citizens use to do their work, and what effects governmental routines have on democratic practices.

Since citizen-official interaction is often mediated by the media, the foundation also studies how the work of the media affects this alignment and monitors the relationship between citizens and the government.

Explore Research in this Area


Public Agencies and Citizen Engagement:
Getting Beyond the Customer-Service Model
How do government agencies and administrators go about their daily work in a way that invites citizens into the decision-making process? Administrators don't have to reinvent their positions or add additional tasks to their already heavy workload. Instead, they approach their current work differently; it is not doing something different, but doing what they do differently.

Bridging the Divide Between the Public and Government
Public administrators who see little value in engaging citizens are distanced from a public that holds high levels of cynicism and negative perceptions about government. This gap between public administrators and citizens threatens our democratic system of governance because it results in a lack of citizen participation. This article pulls together insights from public engagement efforts to bridge the gap between the public and the administrative institutions of government.

Public Administrators and Citizens: Solving Problems Together
Frustrated with the challenges of engaging the public, 16 city and county managers from across the United States met in October 2006 for a two-day conversation at Kettering. The managers expressed a real desire to work with citizens and even offered strategies for how it might work. They expressed a strong interest in creating an effective and different relationship with the public.

Publications

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