Participatory Reforms Research Articles

Implementing Electronic Notification in Los Angeles: Citizen Participation Politics by Other Means

This paper considers whether new information and communication technologies have significant effects on citizen participation by evaluating the development of a major innovation in electronic governance. We analyze the creation of an electronic system in Los Angeles to provide stakeholders a warning of upcoming political decisions and an opportunity to furnish feedback. We evaluate this innovation not only as a technological innovation that affects citizens’ capacity and motivation for participation but also as an alternative institutional means for involving citizens in policy making and public administration. To place this experiment within this larger institutional perspective, we draw upon the lessons of historical reforms aimed to expand citizen participation. We find that although technology does positively affect individuals’ capacity and motivations, technology, by itself, does not overcome the political, institutional, and behavioral impediments that have limited previous participatory reforms. This research was supported by National Science Foundation Information Technology Research Grant #0112899 and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. The authors would like to thank Tony Silbert, Nail Oztas, Kyu-Nahm Jun, Tony Valluzzo, and Alicia Kisuse for expert research assistance. All errors are the authors’ own.

Governance and Public Bureaucracy: New Forms of Democracy or New Forms of Control?

Support for reforms in the public sector has been premised on their capacity to enhance the efficiency and the democracy of public administration. This article questions in particular the democratic implications of reforms, even some participatory reforms that would appear on their face to have a significant capacity to enhance participation. There may be more participation, but that participation is limited to the social organisations and individuals immediately concerned with the policy area. By according those groups enhanced control over policy, these reforms may in fact diminish the accountability of programmes to more general and public controls.

New Public Management and Democratic Participation: Complementary or Competing Reforms? A South African Study

Administrative and participatory reforms are common in developing countries, often introduced together and expected to complement each other. Some observers question whether the reforms do complement each other, however, specifically suggesting that the two types reflect different relational and governance patterns. Based on such thought, a “differential relationship influence hypothesis” is presented and tested, investigating whether new public management (NPM) reforms complement or compete with democratic‐participatory reforms. Econometric analysis of survey data shows that South African municipalities adopt NPM reforms more readily when influenced by top–down intergovernmental relationships but adopt participatory reforms more readily when faced with bottom–up civic influences. This evidence supports the hypothesis and indicates that administrative and participatory reforms may not complement each other. The study also indicates a common administrative culture effect on both types of reform adoption—differential relational influences can be tempered by experimental and change‐minded administrators in local governments.

To Each According to his Power? Participation, Access, and Vulnerability in Irrigation and Flood Management in Pakistan

In this paper I draw upon a realist conceptualization of power to inform the analysis of ethnographic data on access to irrigation water and vulnerability to flood hazard in Pakistan. I undertake an integrated analysis of the role of different types of power in influencing differential vulnerability to flood hazard and access to irrigation water in four local-level villages in central Pakistan. Three modes of power are identified: the feudal mode, the bourgeoisie mode, and the communal mode. Each of the modes relies on force, socialization, and control over resources, respectively, to ensure compliance. The villages which are dominated by large landowners tend to have the feudal mode of power as the predominant power structure, whereas the villages with relatively equal property ownership tend to have the communal mode as the dominant power structure. The analyses of power suggest that the participatory reforms in the water sector of Pakistan proposed by the World Bank are unlikely to lead to gains in either equity or efficiency as long as issues of differential power remain unaddressed.

Foreign aid and the politics of participation in economic policy reform

Research suggests that borrower ‘ownership’ of reforms is highly correlated with the success of reforms in developing countries. One of the most important components of ownership is the nature of public–private relations and consultation with interest groups. Yet participatory reform must overcome several political dilemmas, including problems of credibility, collective action, and distributive (in)justice. The characteristics of reforms also affect the possibilities for participation. Democratic governments interested in making policy reform more participatory and presumably more sustainable can draw on several strategies, including the selective use of incentives and compensation, public education and communications, capacity building in society, institutional mechanisms for consultation, and political sequencing of reforms. These strategies have implications for the foreign aid agencies who often fund reforms. They suggest that donors need to recognize the political rationality behind cross-payments and spending to maintain important constituencies; that political sustainability may require reform sequences that are out of step with current orthodoxy; that policies ought to create winners before creating losers; that democratic consultation will require much more time in achieving consensus; and that outside actors need to refrain from intervening too directly in the political process by throwing their support behind particular interests. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Participatory reforms and democracy: The case of Argentina

forms demonstrate contradictory tendencies that link calls for greater professional and citizen participation in decision making to the promotion of broader economic policies that disempower large sectors of the population. For example, around the globe calls for greater participation in social institutions tend to accompany the promotion of neoliberal economic policies that result in greater social inequality. These contradictory tendencies raise several questions that we hope to address in this article: Why are participatory reforms promoted by governments that show little interest in changing current relations of wealth and power? Are democracy and direct participation in decision making compatible with economic inequality? Can schools contribute to processes of democratization when they are immersed in their own anti-democratic culture?

The politics of participatory reforms in education

acterized by a pervasive interest in participation. Restructuring efforts promote the participation of a growing number of constituencies including teachers, parents, students, community leaders, social service agencies, and business. This move toward broader inclusion in decision making has been accompanied by a vertical administrative decentralization, which devolves decision making down the organizational hierarchy. While this interest in participation is not the only focus of school restructuring, its link to school autonomy, site-based management, parental involvement, and teacher empowerment places it at the center of most school restructuring initiatives. The authors of the articles in this issue are

Toward Authentic Participation: Deconstructing the Discourses of Participatory Reforms in Education

Current educational reforms in the U.S. contain a pervasive discourse of participation. Although calls for participation of teachers, students, parents, communities, business, and numerous other stakeholders in schools are central to most reforms, there is increasing evidence that much participatory reform is either bogus, superficial, or ineffective (Beare, 1993; Hargreaves, 1994; Malen & Ogawa, 1988; Smyth, 1993). In this article, I discuss the various influences on the discourse of participation and the ways it is currently being promoted and implemented by diverse constituencies. More specifically, I analyze (a) how participation becomes a form of public relations to create greater institutional legitimacy for current educational practices, (b) how participation mechanisms, viewed as disciplinary practices, become more sophisticated technologies of control, (c) how structures set up for greater participation often become sites for collusion, and (d) how movements promoting parental school choice in an educational marketplace are framed as providing greater parental participation. Finally, in an effort to sort out these issues and move toward more authentic forms of participation, a conceptual framework guided by five fundamental questions that orient participation efforts will be provided.

Toward Authentic Participation: Deconstructing the Discourses of Participatory Reforms in Education

Current educational reforms in the U.S. contain a pervasive discourse of participation. Although calls for participation of teachers, students, parents, communities, business, and numerous other stakeholders in schools are central to most reforms, there is increasing evidence that much participatory reform is either bogus, superficial, or ineffective ( Beare, 1993 ; Hargreaves, 1994 ; Malen & Ogawa, 1988 ; Smyth, 1993 ). In this article, I discuss the various influences on the discourse of participation and the ways it is currently being promoted and implemented by diverse constituencies. More specifically, I analyze (a) how participation becomes a form of public relations to create greater institutional legitimacy for current educational practices, (b) how participation mechanisms, viewed as disciplinary practices, become more sophisticated technologies of control, (c) how structures set up for greater participation often become sites for collusion, and (d) how movements promoting parental school choice in an educational marketplace are framed as providing greater parental participation. Finally, in an effort to sort out these issues and move toward more authentic forms of participation, a conceptual framework guided by five fundamental questions that orient participation efforts will be provided.

Telecommunications policy in the new South Africa: participatory politics and sectoral reform

This article examines the process of telecommunications reform in the `new' South Africa. In many, if not most countries, telecommunications reform has been pushed by political and economic elites, whose ability to bring about policy transformations derives largely from the insulation of `reform' from normal political decision-making channels and distributive claims. In marked contrast, telecommunications reform in South Africa was conducted within a democratizing context and was itself a democratic process of a unique, participatory kind. The tension between participatory and electoral democracy was, for the most part, productive of a viable and legitimate reform policy.

Decentralizing agricultural extension: alternative strategies

This paper is organized into two sections. The first, on alternative decentralization strategies, examines government structures and their strategies for decentralizing public sector agricultural extension service systems. Two basic governmental structures (federal and unitary) and three basic strategies (structural, fiscal and stakeholder participatory involvement in management) are examined; a conceptual framework is developed around these structures and alternative strategies. This framework suggests that decentralizing reforms are determined in part according to a country's constitutional status, and that this status informs the type of strategy adopted or in progress and, in some cases, the type of financial strategy for cost recovery. The second section, on decentralization guidelines and recommendations, considers a number of related questions: the practice of setting national goals, determining institutional strategies and clarifying intended outcomes. Also briefly reviewed are a number of guidelines for promoting structural and fiscal reforms to enhance such decentralization processes, as well as a framework for thinking about participatory management reforms. The concluding section outlines the inchoate tensions that may be encountered during the initial stages of a decentralization process, and suggests that countries seeking to move toward decentralizing agricultural extension services begin by examining the funding and delivery* arrangements of similar extension services worldwide.

Saline politics: Local participation and neoliberalism in Australian rural environments

Participatory approaches to sustainable development have become increasingly popular world‐wide. In Australia, participatory approaches such as landcare and regional catchment management form the basis of rural environmental policy and practice. At the same time, neoliberalist reforms such as market deregulation and withdrawal of state assistance from agriculture have been implemented. Various commentators have suggested that local participatory practices can enable neoliberal reforms by depoliticising rural environmental problems and fragmenting action. This paper explores the intersection of these participatory policy developments and neoliberal reforms through two case studies on the government of salinity in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. From this work, it is apparent that neoliberal reforms result in competition for resources within the state, the projectisation of environmental action, and a hesistance of the state to allocate resources for broader environmental monitoring. This work demonstrates how the contradictions in these developments can create a chaotic and irrational environmental politics that can result in a repoliticisation of rural environments and opportunities for a more rational and democratic sustainable development practice.

Telecommunications policy in the new South Africa: participatory politics and sectoral reform

ABSTRACT This article examines the process of telecommunications policy reform in the new South Africa. In many, if not most, countries, telecommunications reform has been pushed by political and economic elites, whose ability to bring about policy transformations derives largely from the insulation of ‘reform’ from normal political decision-making channels and distributive claims. In marked contrast, telecommunications reform in South Africa was conducted within a democratising context and was itself a democratic process of a unique, participatory kind. Here was an instance of negotiations within civil society and between civil society and the state over the shape of a new political economy, where consensus building would have normative force for the participants. The tension between participatory and electoral politics, typical of South African politics since the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, in this instance was productive in creating a viable and legitimate policy.

Participatory Reforms and the New Type of Key-persons

Participatory Reforms and the New Type of Key-persons

Participatory Reform in Canada: The Case of Social Assistance in Ontario

Participatory Reform in Canada: The Case of Social Assistance in Ontario

Workers' participative schemes: the experience of capitalist and plan-based societies

Preface Introduction The Analytical Framework Participative Reforms in Market Oriented Societies The Scandinavian Model of Workers' Participation The European Experience with Workers' Participation Workers' Participation in Japan and the United States Participative Reforms in Plan Based Societies The Ideology and Practice of Self-Management in Yugoslavia Worker Participation in Eastern Europe: The Cases of Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia Workers' Participation and Politics of Economic and Industrial Reforms in China Participatory Reforms in the Soviet Union Conclusions Cross-National and Cross-System Comparisons Bibliography Index

Some Theory of Industrial and Economic Democracy

This paper explores a general framework in which one may begin to address the question as to what the impact of increasing labour participation is upon capitalist firms. A conceptual framework for studying the impact upon the power distributions, the rate of exploitation and upon democratic legitimation is outlined in the context of neo-classical Marxism and new concept of exploitation. The interrelationship between participatory reform and the establishment of industrial producer co-operatives is also briefly studied.

Community Control: A Grassroots Response

Although the idea of “community control” has been criticized as unworkable by some social scientists and educators, it is reemerging as a possible alternative to present bureaucratic arrangements in public education and in other urban service areas. This article summarizes some of these criticisms and responds to them. The refutations are based on theory from the literature of urban politics and education and on previous empirical research in this area. It is proposed that the arguments against community control are weak and that therefore this idea should be given an opportunity to operate at the local level. The article provides a framework that encompasses a grassroots perspective. This approach has been overlooked by those who have studied participatory reforms in urban education.

Reforming School Politics

In this essay David Cohen explores the effects of a growing belief that the key to school reform is political and procedural change, rather than substantive improvement. He argues that the recent interest in "accountability" arises from disappointment with the reform efforts of the 1930s and 1960s and examines reforms based on the view that substantive improvements will not work unless the power of professionals is reduced and the power and participation of families and communities increased. Suggesting that there are serious social and economic barriers to the success of such participatory reforms, he argues that the political power of private and politically unaccountable agencies is at least as serious an obstacle to democratic control as the power of school professionals and bureaucrats who are formally accountable. He examines the barriers to participatory reforms and the problems of private government and assesses the prospects for alternative approaches to reforming school politics.

The President Needs New Kinds of Power

The President needs to increase the variety and quality rather than the quantity of his power. The problem is of the utmost importance in a political system that is under- productive and beset with social needs. The production of better social policy requires presidential commitment and skill as a value creator, exploitation of the new political move ments of environmentalism and consumerism, support of "left out" interest groups of rising strength, a modernized Congress, and improved administrative techniques, including "participa tory reform." Although protracted wars damage social policy, the United States ought not revert to isolationism because freedom, to which social policy contributes, cannot persist at home without freedom abroad. Rather than encroach upon the President's constitutional powers concerning national secu rity, we should seek to improve presidential decision-making processes in foreign affairs.