Minority associations, networks and public policies: Re‐assessing relationships

Abstract

Economic and political restructuring in Western societies has wrought a variety of new modes of exclusion, including unequal access to public resources and policy making. These have particularly affected members of immigrant and ethnic minority populations. New forums, types of representation and modes of participation are needed to bring about more democratic developments surrounding a range of public policies (including education, housing, health and social care). In the first part of this article a variety of forms of immigrant and ethnic minority representation, consultation and participation in the policy process are reviewed. In the second part, new directions are discussed, particularly by way of calls to recognise institutionally (a) the so‐called ‘new pluralism’ and the inherent multiplicity of identities among all members of the public, (b) new modes of social and political networking, and (c) associationalist political frameworks intended to facilitate more democratic forms of policy formation and delivery.