Enhancing democracy through public participation process during COVID-19 pandemic: A review

Abstract

The public participation process is deemed essential as it enhances partnerships between the government and citizens during the decision-making  process. This study perused the meaning and merits of public participation, and how democracy could be enhanced through the public participation process during COVID-19 pandemic. The Democratic DecisionMaking Theory and the Technological Acceptance Model underpinned the study. These theories highlighted the need to include the citizens in the decision-making process and the relevance of the South African government to support and educate the public on the usefulness of adopting information science to achieve effective governance, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative study was applied in this study and data were collected from secondary sources such as articles, government legislation, textbooks, and the Internet. Major findings depict that public participation involves a process by which the parliament and provincial legislatures refer to the citizens, individuals, government entities, and concerned organisations in the decision-making process to achieve good governance.
The public participation process establishes partnerships and relationships, promotes addressing the needs of the citizens, and enhances the collective decision-making process. It was discovered that numerous communication dynamics could be used to enhance public participation  process during the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies from several scholars further revealed that electronic media is the most effective communication dynamics to be applied in the public participation process during the COVID-19 pandemic and these include Short Message Service (SMS), WhatsApp group messages, Facebook messages, Electronic mail (e-mail), and Zoom virtual presentations. The study recommends that the South African government should apply a mix of these electronic media options in the public participation process to enhance democracy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Public participation; Democracy; Communication dynamics; COVID-19; South Africa.