A professor in the Political Science Department at Italy's University of Bologna recently emailed us in response to our Open Government Dialogue. It appears that there is considerable interest in Italy on the topic of participation. In fact, the Tuscan regional government's guidelines for citizen participation are posted online.

Of particular interest are the enumerated duties of the Regional Authority – they're not simply guidelines, but really specific requirements. It seems that citizen participation is really built into the job descriptions of these government offices.