The Civic Square and the Public Triangle: InsideOut: A series of personal perspectives on government

As the British state is reshaped in an era of public austerity this paper offers a basis for securing the public’s trust in the competence of public institutions and their confidence in the legitimacy of those who lead them.

It offers two simple concepts for public servants (whether elected or appointed) to use in their work. These concepts offer answers to the following questions. First, how do public agencies build the right arena to engage the public in open discussion about public problems? And second, what is the best way to approach public dialogue so as to arrive at properly considered public choices? The suggestion here is that each public policy problem needs to have its own specially designed Civic Square, and that if public dialogue is to be effective in that square it needs to be approached by use of a Public Triangle. This paper offers a general route map for building a Civic Square and for navigating the Public Triangle.

The Civic Square

The Civic Square an arena, a stage or a place in which public dialogue occurs about complex public policy problems. An arena created by public authorities to support comprehensive public dialogue on changes to public infrastructure, public goods, public services and public problems.

The Public Triangle

The Public Triangle is a framework for supporting public dialogue. This ensures a focus on the three points of the triangle; these are the three key questions for addressing any complex public problem. First, what is the ‘public interest’? Second, how is ‘public value’ best realised? And third, what are the demands of ‘public reason’ in resolving this problem?