Supporting societal decision making: a process perspective

Abstract Opaque processes serve to mask the connection between cause and effect. When embedded in the political system, they contribute to the alienation of voters from that system. This article describes an approach to improve transparency of one such process, that of public decision making, in order to better engage with the electorate. The authors propose the adoption of a web‐based process support system in which to construct the decision‐making process such that the elements of the decision model are available at all times for public scrutiny. Two case studies are presented that emphasise the need for openness, transparency, reporting and the exploring of public values in societal decision making. The article outlines the findings of the case studies and discusses how the proposed web‐based system can be used to support participative and democratic decision processes. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.