Citizen participation: Antagonists or allies

Abstract

The nature of American communities, with their multiple forces and types of organizations and with their massive concentration of diverse ethnic, economic, social and religious groups, demands equally complex systems for decisionmaking; systems which will somehow reflect the wants and needs and interests of such groups. However, the people who inhabit American communities do not possess equal influence in this complex process, and the result has been that some, especially the middle class and less priviledged, have been least effective in making their needs felt and in securing action relevant to their interests. Many residents in populated areas, but particularly middle class and lower socio-economic groups, suffer from a pervasive sense of powerlessness, which in large part accounts for civic apathy. This, in turn, contributes to the persistence of conditions that prevail in many American urban and suburban areas, poor housing conditions, lack of good medical care, delinquency, vandalism, crime, drug addiction, discrimination, fear, pessismism, helplessness, and a general civic and social apathy. The most realistic explanation for an apathetic public is a bureaucratic-technocratic type of administration; an administration which plans for and not with people. Bureaucratic ideologies tend to restrict the areas in which community participation is deemed appropriate, while technocratic ideology suggests that only those highly trained and certified in their own specific area