Establishing fairness duties as fiduciary–epistemic principles through the case of UK Civil Service participatory design
by Peter Kahl, 2025-07-23; v3: 2025-09-17
This paper examines the UK Civil Service’s participatory practices at the London Design Biennale through the lens of Epistemic Clientelism Theory (ECT). Drawing on fiduciary law, deliberative democracy, and critical social theory, it argues that the workshops—framed as “serious games”—constituted not democratic innovation but structural breaches of fiduciary–epistemic duty. Participation was curated, scripted, and opaque, producing symbolic inclusion while suppressing dissent and epistemic plurality.
A central contribution of this paper is the articulation of Fairness Duties in Participatory Design—notice (Ridge v Baldwin), reasons (Doody), access (UNISON), and proportionality (Mott). Transposed from public law into the epistemic domain, these duties specify the obligations institutions owe to citizens when structuring participatory processes. Case law on fiduciary loyalty (Keech v Sandford; Boardman v Phipps) and fiduciary power in state contexts (Frame v Smith; Guerin v The Queen) further anchors this framework.
The result is a normative blueprint for reform: fiduciary–epistemic governance that embeds transparency, accountability, reflexivity, and democratic co-creation. By integrating jurisprudence with deliberative theory (Habermas, Gutmann & Thompson), the paper advances both doctrinal and democratic innovation, recasting participatory governance not as theatre but as a fiduciary relationship grounded in epistemic justice.
epistemic clientelism, fiduciary duties, participatory governance, deliberative democracy, procedural fairness, transparency, accountability, epistemic justice, symbolic capital, communicative rationality, democratic legitimacy, law
Kahl, P. (2025). Government policy design is a serious game: Fairness Duties in Participatory Design as a normative framework for democratic epistemology (v3). Lex et Ratio Ltd. GitHub: https://github.com/Peter-Kahl/Government-Policy-Design-is-a-Serious-Game DOI: https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.36704.34568
First published in London by Peter Kahl, 2025-07-23.
v2 published in London by Peter Kahl, 2025-07-29.
v3 published in London by Lex et Ratio Ltd, 2025-09-17.
© 2025 Lex et Ratio Ltd. The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work and to object to its derogatory treatment. Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes with attribution and without modification.
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .