Citizen-Assisted Performance Measurement? Reassessing Its Viability and Impact

Abstract

Citizen-assisted performance measurement (CAPM) was a hot topic just a decade or so ago, promoted by enthusiasts as a useful coupling of the performance measurement and citizen participation movements. The idea of engaging citizens in the design of local government performance measures retains some ongoing support today based mostly on normative assumptions and testimonials. A careful review of the premises of CAPM and empirical evidence from CAPM projects, however, reveals weaknesses in the premises and few surviving measures from CAPM projects. The authors’ findings support the view that citizen efforts would more beneficially be directed upstream of performance measurement, with citizens engaged as focus groups to offer views on their local government’s performance objectives and priorities rather than as designers of performance measures.