Organizational Suspensions: A Desire for Interaction

The participation and involvement of citizens in decision making is a widespread ideal in welfare services. Participation has been widely studied in political science and has been ascribed different functions, such as making public institutions more responsive to the wishes and wants of citizens, improving the quality of decision making, and mobilizing people as part of a deliberative ideal of co-optations of interests (Oudshoorn et al. 2003; Newman and Clarke 2009; Barnes et al. 2007; Pedersen 2008; Kjær and Pedersen 2010). In welfare services, and particularly in health care, the welfare service area that will be of interest in this chapter, both political bodies and professional associations have emphasized the importance of patient participation and shared decision making.