Participation, citizenship and local governance

For the last twenty years, the concept of “participation” has been widely used in the discourse of development. For much of this period, the concept has referred to participation in the social arena, in the “community” or in development projects. Increasingly, however, the concept of participation is being related to rights of citizenship and to democratic governance. Nowhere is the intersection of concepts of community participation and citizenship seen more clearly than in the multitude of programmes for decentralised governance that are found in both southern and northern countries. Linking citizen participation to the state at this local or grassroots level raises fundamental and normative questions about the nature of democracy and about the skills and strategies for achieving it.

This paper will very briefly explore literature related to the dynamics and methods of strengthening community-based participation in the context of programmes for democratic decentralisation. In so doing, we will:

• discuss the differing concepts of participation, and their intersection;
• examine the evidence related to the barriers to participation in local governance;
• explore some new initiatives and strategies for overcoming those barriers; and
• suggest some research themes and questions for further consideration.

In general, our purpose is to suggest some broad concepts and parameters for discussion, rather than to explore any of them at this point in great depth. Our hope is that other presentations and the ensuing discussions of the workshop will provide further elaboration.