Deliberative Participation in Local Development

Abstract

In this paper I aim to improve the theory and practice of participation in local, grassroots, or micro‐development initiatives. First, I classify weaker and stronger types of participation and, in relation to these accounts, I propose and explain an ideal of deliberative participation derived from the theory and practice of deliberative democracy. Second, in relation to these types of participation and especially the deliberative ideal, I evaluate Sabina Alkire's recent efforts, in Valuing Freedoms: Sen's Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction, to apply Sen's theory to micro‐projects. Although I find much to approve of in her approach to grassroots participation, I argue that it could be strengthened by features of deliberative participation. Third, I analyze and rebut three charges leveled against Sen's democratic turn, deliberative democracy, and deliberative participation — namely, these allied accounts are flawed by too much indeterminacy, too little autonomy, and insufficient realism with respect to asymmetries of power.