Participatory Decision-making in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Challenges and Trade-offs for Local Governments at Commune level in Viet Nam

Abstract

The fourth industrial revolution brought both opportunities and challenges for promoting public participation in the sub-national decision making. The paper aims to describe the participatory decision-making of the commune government, the lowest government level in Viet Nam and analyze the influencing factors, the challenges for the commune participatory decision-making, and the trade-offs the commune leaders have to make while ensuring inclusiveness. 

Based on the survey findings, document analysis and observations, case examples the paper has shown that the commune government have to involve local people from the early stage of the decision making at the highest participation level, using new technologies to promote public participation. The main findings reveal the commune governments, the lowest-level government in Vietnam introduce the four-C approach to engage people in local decision-making: Communication, Consultation, Collaboration, Co-production.