Thank you very much.

OK, great. Thank you so much for your availability. It was a great pleasure as always and thank you very much for your insightful and stimulating thoughts. I hope I will meet you again in person. I don’t know when.

Even if what I understand is that theses democratic tools are specially relevant in order to discuss laws, regulations and norms, but not totally implemented within the management of public services. If I take the example of Taipei water service I am not sure that this kind of democratic governance ...

I think we need to go in depth social governance question. That’s why we collaborate with Mike. It’s very important to design a new model, not only conceptual but also operational to have public participation in decision-making processes. Taiwan is a very fascinating experience for that.

As you noticed, I’m a strong proponent of public services. It’s very important to improve the public services with much more participatory democracy. For me, it’s one of the key issue for our future and for our basic needs like water, energy, etc.

Thank you very much. I know that Taiwanese experience is very well-known among the open data, open governance, open democracy community but, in fact, not very well-known unfortunately among politicians…

OK. Good.

Would it be possible after that to ask the question, to send you by emails?

Maybe Mike if you want to follow up with another question.

What is your point of view regarding common goods and public service management, and how it’s possible to implement a public management model with a genuine public participation?

Just to jump in this private-public issue; In one of your interview, you said, - it was very interesting for me -, that in Taiwan there is a collective priority of rebuilding strong mutual trust between the government and the civil society.This is something that a European nation, especially people ...

Yes.

…just I didn’t hear you a few seconds, but now it’s OK.

Yes…

OK. Mike, maybe you are about to…

It’s very interesting because it’s not top-down, is a bottom-up consultative process.

For example, in that case, I am wondering if in your view the majority of growers and farmers know that they can request a consultation process?

One of the conditions for the success of theses participatory processes of deliberation is the widest possible awareness of, and knowledge about these democratic mechanisms among the population. It means that everybody at every level knows how to launch a petition, to request a consultation process, and so on.

In that case, if the growers or farmers wanted to sign a petition and to launch a consultation on that matter, could they?

OK.

Do you think it could be relevant to have another consultation on that issue?

In concrete terms, in this case, has there been a process of consultation with the various stakeholders? Could a national debate on the uses of water, on the choice of public policies to be carried out, be conceived in your framework of participatory democracy?

Since recently, Taiwan has experienced a dramatic draught, the worst in over half of century. This very challenging situation leads the government to take drastic decisions. To save water for homes and Tech factories, Taiwan has decided to impose severe water use restrictions and has shut off irrigation across tens ...

I have a question regarding public governance and public policies. I would like to focus on a concrete example.

OK, thank you.

Yes, I confirm.

Amazing! Maybe Mike, you have some questions.

It’s very interesting. Does it mean that there is no reluctance from civil servants,and from the administration to use these democratic processes?

Nowadays, can you say that there is much more legitimacy attached to laws and regulations taken by the government? Do you think that the relationships between citizens and government have improved? and that as of today the people’s expectations in Taiwan are better taken into account?

In your point of view, what are the main outcomes drawn from these experiences in terms of better consideration of the needs of citizens and the population, and in terms of the legitimacy of decisions taken by government institutions and their social acceptance?

Several social movements have marked the history of your young democracy. With g0v movement, and vTaiwan platform,Taïwan has created different innovative tools for improving democracy in Taiwan.

Great. We have a lot of questions, but, of course, feel free to add any comments, any idea, and any insight. My first question is about democratization experience in Taiwan. In my point of view, it’s a very fascinating case because Taiwanese people have lived under the longest martial law ...

Maybe before starting the interview, please, Michael Menser, Mike, if you can introduce yourself, and maybe also add some comments on the research paper.

In this context, I have a collaboration with Professor Mickael Menser for writing a research paper about public participation in public utilities and more broadly how we can improve public policy through participatory democracy. It’s a research paper based on concrete field experiences. This paper will be published by Rosa ...

Hi Audrey, nice to meet you again! Maybe as you remember, the first time we met I was Deputy-Mayor of Paris in charge of water and sanitation policy and Chair of Eau De Paris, the publicly-owned water company in Paris. I led the re-municipalization of the water service and carry ...