Abstract

This article stems from an internet survey administered to public officers from two Italian regions and presents some evidences concerning two crucial features of the participative policies, participation and conflict. Specifically, a model to determine the 'participative inclination' of policies, based on identifying and weighting the influence of the subjects entering the arena, and a methodology to explore the conflict in inclusive processes are introduced. Participative policies, on average, appear biased towards a particular interests representation model, that is a bargaining, rather than dialogical-deliberative setting. Inclusive processes are all but markedly conflictual, evidencing the utilization of conflict limitation strategies and a pathological interpretation of conflict in itself. The 'conflict resolution score' computed has shown a positive correlation to the institutionalization of singled out policies.