Localism and the paradox of devolution: delegated citizen committees in Victoria, Australia

A central ideal in community localism is the notion of participatory devolution; that citizens ought to be engaged, supported and included in local decision-making. Community localism views participatory engagement as a vital ingredient in the quest to empower communities and enliven local democracy. Yet, critics argue that, in practice, many participatory initiatives inspired by community localism fail to empower citizens because they represent one-off consultation exercises with limited devolution of responsibility or control. This paper contributes to this debate by examining how participatory devolution is enacted in the messy world of local governance. It focuses on the use of a participatory mechanism that has received little attention in localism debates, the delegated citizen committee. These are committees composed of volunteer citizens who have formal devolved power to manage local assets, such as public halls or sporting fields, and, in some cases, to make decisions on broader policy issues. Drawing on the experiences of a local government in Victoria, Australia, the article asks what work do delegated citizen committees do?; who participates?; what issues do they affect?; and how are they supported? The study finds that, in practice, many delegated citizen committees have devolved responsibility to perform managerial and administrative services, but, paradoxically, they have limited influence on the broader functioning of local democracy.