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Publications

The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities

The academic volume ‘The State of Access: Success and Failure of Democracies to Create Equal Opportunities’ will be available in January 2009. A preview of the book cover can be found here.

This book documents a worrisome gap between principles and practice in democratic governance. The State of Access is a comparative, cross-disciplinary exploration of the ways in which democratic institutions fail or succeed to create the equal opportunities that they have promised to deliver to the people they serve.




Breaking the Glass Wall. A Practitioner's Agenda for Improving Access

This book features twelve examples of successful innovations that have improved access. It also discusses the challenges for policy makers and practitioners in overcoming obstacles.

Drawing from examples from all over the world, this volume shows that many worldwide problems in democratic governance can be traced back to the concept of Access. A glass wall that is not always immediately visible stands oftentimes between disadvantaged citizens and the services they are entitled to by law.

‘Breaking the Glass Wall’ describes the concept of Access and the dimensions of the Access framework, richly illustrating how these dimensions play out in practice. It then proceeds with four chapters with cases that show the lack of Access in all its diversity, but also describe successful innovations to overcome the lack of Access: to break the glass wall.

• Access to the Economy: Facilitating Small Business Development
• Access to Justice: Bridging the Gap between Principle and Practice
• Dealing with the Disadvantaged: Creating New Opportunities for Participation
• Access through Technology: Putting the Citizen Front and Center

Each chapter provides concrete and crosscutting lessons for practitioners on how to go about similar issues of Access. The book concludes by calling upon public managers, policy makers and politicians to not only ask ‘what can others do to improve Access?’, but also ‘what can I do to improve Access?’. It provides directions for answering these questions and practical information to make a change and break the glass wall.

‘Breaking the Glass Wall: A Practitioner's Agenda for Improving Access’ which will be published in spring 2009. To place an advance order, please mail: info@improvingaccess.org




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Improving access is creating a better match between the societal commitment and institutional capacity to deliver rights and services and people’s capacity to enjoy those rights and services. We are dedicated to exploring the mechanisms that impede access and to promoting innovations that improve access.

Contact:
info@improvingaccess.org