CHAPTER 1 - Theories of Democracy and Participation

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the theories of democracy and participation. Democracy and participation fit the common mold of the social and political sciences with their litter of discrepancies between theory and practice, and the contrasts between aspiration and implementation. The study of democracy and participation is fraught with often unexpected difficulties; in particular, the term and concept of participation has attracted to itself a diversity of meanings and a seemingly inexhaustible variety of practical expressions. In addition, participation has become, at various times, the focus of sympathy, antipathy, comprehension, incomprehension, delay, frustration, challenge, and other similar emotional responses; it seldom seems capable of attracting rational consideration and expression. The diversity of context in which participation practices have been used, or attempted, is almost without limit; and, just as the context has varied, so has the purpose of its use by politicians, community radicals, public servants, activist organizations, industrialists, trade unionists, and even individual citizens. The chapter reviews some of the theories of democracy and participation to achieve a meaningful philosophical base from which the need for and the appropriate expression of citizen participation in decision making can be appraised.