The election has certainly raised the profile of public involvement.  It has even brought into the public domain (tentatively) the way involvement plays alongside democratic processes.  This has to be good news, right?

The answer depends on what you see as public involvement and its real potential.

At Fontis we believe public involvement can work in many different ways. Only some of these are currently being aired by the mainstream political parties and, as you would expect, for a mixed bag of reasons. 

The full implications and the real power of embracing the messy world of involvement is always going to be a challenge to elected politicians, whatever their declared intentions. 

Democratic accountability is a particular type of accountability, and in the UK brings with it a requirement to plan, control and make decisions on behalf of others. 

Involvement is inherently much more diffuse and fluid, about active contribution rather than accountability, and therefore outside the all-embracing model of institutional and democratic performance management.

The real challenge is how the two can work well together.  Meeting the challenge requires a marked shift by those elected from paternalistic enablement - "we will allow the public" - to a genuine recognition that transformational power really is with and from the continuing engagement between people. 

It is the steps after the election that will matter most and this is when Fontis will provide both challenge and support to individuals and organisations, elected or otherwise.

Whatever the outcome of the election there will be much to do.