Participation (decision making)
Encyclopedia
Participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions - and ideally exert influence - regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. Participatory decision making can take place along any realm of human social activity, including economic (i.e. participatory economics
), political (i.e. participatory democracy
or parpolity), management
(i.e. participatory management
), cultural (i.e. polyculturalism
) or familial (i.e. feminism
).
For well-informed participation to occur, it is argued that some version of transparency
, e.g. radical transparency
, is necessary, but not sufficient. It has also been argued that those most affected by a decision should have the most say while those that are least affected should have the least say in a topic.
for activities. It can educate the public about an agency's activities. It can also facilitate useful information exchange regarding local conditions. Furthermore, participation is often legally mandated. From the citizen viewpoint, participation enables individuals and groups to influence agency decisions in a representational
manner.
She defines citizen participation as the redistribution of power that enables the have-not citizens, presently excluded from the political and economic processes, to be deliberately included in the future.
Archon Fung
presents another classification of participation based on three key questions: Who is allowed to participate, and are they representative of the population? What is the method of communication or decision-making? And how much influence or authority is granted to the participation?
Other "ladders" of participation have been presented by D.M. Connor,
Wiedemann and Femers,
A. Dorcey et al., Jules N. Pretty
and E.M. Rocha.
Participatory economics
Participatory economics, often abbreviated parecon, is an economic system proposed primarily by activist and political theorist Michael Albert and radical economist Robin Hahnel, among others. It uses participatory decision making as an economic mechanism to guide the production, consumption and...
), political (i.e. participatory democracy
Participatory democracy
Participatory Democracy, also known as Deliberative Democracy, Direct Democracy and Real Democracy , is a process where political decisions are made directly by regular people...
or parpolity), management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
(i.e. participatory management
Participatory management
Participatory management is the practice of empowering employees to participate in organizational decision making. This practice grew out of the human relations movement in the 1920s, and is based on some of the principles discovered by scholars doing research in management and organization...
), cultural (i.e. polyculturalism
Polyculturalism
"Polyculturalism" is a term for an assertion that all of the world's cultures are inter-related. It is thus opposed to the concept of multiculturalism, which its supporters argue is divisive. Polyculturalism was the subject of the 2001 book Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and...
) or familial (i.e. feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
).
For well-informed participation to occur, it is argued that some version of transparency
Transparency (humanities)
Transparency, as used in science, engineering, business, the humanities and in a social context more generally, implies openness, communication, and accountability. Transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed...
, e.g. radical transparency
Radical transparency
Radical transparency is a management approach in which all decision making is carried out publicly. The term was used by Daniel Goleman in his book...
, is necessary, but not sufficient. It has also been argued that those most affected by a decision should have the most say while those that are least affected should have the least say in a topic.
Objectives of participation
Participation activities may be motivated from an administrative perspective or a citizen perspective. From the administrative viewpoint, participation can build public supportPublic opinion
Public opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views....
for activities. It can educate the public about an agency's activities. It can also facilitate useful information exchange regarding local conditions. Furthermore, participation is often legally mandated. From the citizen viewpoint, participation enables individuals and groups to influence agency decisions in a representational
Representation (politics)
In politics, representation describes how some individuals stand in for others or a group of others, for a certain time period. Representation usually refers to representative democracies, where elected officials nominally speak for their constituents in the legislature...
manner.
Classifying participation
Sherry Arnstein discusses eight types of participation in A Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969). Often termed as "Arnstein's ladder", these are broadly categorized as:- Citizen Power: Citizen Control, Delegated Power, Partnership.
- Nonparticipation: Placation, Consultation, Informing.
- TokenismTokenismIn the arts, employment, and politics, tokenism is a policy or practice of limited inclusion or artistic and/or political representation of members of a traditionally marginalized group, usually creating a false appearance of inclusive practices rather than discrimination, intentional or not...
: Therapy, Manipulation.
She defines citizen participation as the redistribution of power that enables the have-not citizens, presently excluded from the political and economic processes, to be deliberately included in the future.
Archon Fung
Archon Fung
Archon Fung is the Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Citizenship at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and co-founder of the Transparency Policy Project...
presents another classification of participation based on three key questions: Who is allowed to participate, and are they representative of the population? What is the method of communication or decision-making? And how much influence or authority is granted to the participation?
Other "ladders" of participation have been presented by D.M. Connor,
Wiedemann and Femers,
A. Dorcey et al., Jules N. Pretty
and E.M. Rocha.
Specific participation activities
- Town hall meetingTown hall meetingA town hall meeting is an American English term given to an informal public meeting. Everybody in a town community is invited to attend, not always to voice their opinions, but to hear the responses from public figures and elected officials about shared subjects of interest. Attendees rarely voted...
- Advisory committeeCommitteeA committee is a type of small deliberative assembly that is usually intended to remain subordinate to another, larger deliberative assembly—which when organized so that action on committee requires a vote by all its entitled members, is called the "Committee of the Whole"...
- Citizens' juryCitizens' juryA Citizens' Jury is a mechanism of participatory action research that draws on the symbolism, and some of the practices, of a legal trial by jury. It generally includes three main elements:...
- Opinion pollOpinion pollAn opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...
- Participatory designParticipatory designParticipatory design is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all stakeholders in the design process in order to help ensure the product designed meets their needs and is usable. The term is used in a variety of fields e.g...
- ReferendumReferendumA referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
- ProtestProtestA protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
See also
- Public information
- Accountable autonomyAccountable autonomyAccountable autonomy is a concept by political scientist Archon Fung that denotes a particular institutional design of administrative and democratic organization which tries to get the most out of civic participation and deliberation...
- p-Government: Online participatory government
External links
- http://homepages.see.leeds.ac.uk/~lecmsr/Reed%20(in%20press)%20Stakeholder%20participation%20for%20environmental%20management%20-%20a%20literature%20review.%20Biological%20Conservation%20(proof).pdf Reed MS (2008) Stakeholder participation for environmental management: a literature review. Biological Conservation 141: 2417–2431 (for final published version see: http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0888-8892)
- Participatory Economics Book Page (Participatory Decision Making)
- "Future in the Alps" Database with best practice examples of new forms of decision making in the Alps
- "Participatory Learning and Action series" A leading informal journal on participatory learning and action approaches and methods, providing a forum for those engaged in participatory work - community workers, activists and researchers - to share their experiences, conceptual reflections and methodological innovations with others.
- "Participation and the FAO" The Participation Website was established in 1999 by the Informal Working Group on Participatory Approaches and Methods to Support Sustainable Livelihoods and Food Security (IWG-PA) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The objective of the Participation Website is to bring together under one virtual roof, a broad cross-section of stakeholders interested in participatory approaches and methods in support of sustainable rural livelihoods and food security.
- "p-Government" The author proposes a new model of electronic governance based on the shared vision and collaboration of all the stakeholders. This new governance model shall be known as p-government or participatory government.