Political systems

Participation

There are many different definitions of political participation that include activities ranging from voting in elections or joining a union, to discussing politics with friends or engaging in community self-help initiatives. This page takes a deliberately broad view of participation, including all voluntary activities that aim to influence political decisions on all levels of the political system. This includes conformist participatory activities like party membership or electoral campaigning and non-conformist activities, such as strikes and demonstrations.

Most donors and academics support pro-poor political participation as a means of improving state capacity and empowering the poor. Growing democratisation and decentralisation policies in many developing countries have also ensured that political participation continues to be a key governance topic. But have these changes really increased pro-poor political participation? If not, what are the barriers to involvement for the poor?

Page contents

Where is a good place to start?

Kersting, N. and Sperberg, J., 2003, 'Political Participation', chapter 7 in Poverty and Democracy: Self-help and Political Participation in Third World Cities, eds. D. Berg-Schlosser and N. Kersting, Zed Books, London
Has the wave of democratisation that occurred between the 1980s and 1990s enhanced the participation of the rural poor in political life? Has the right to vote made a real difference to their lives? This study published in ‘Poverty and Democracy’ defines different ‘types’ of political participation by looking at four countries in Latin America and Africa. Ultimately, the role of democratisation and free elections in the lives of the urban poor is conditioned by specific institutional, socio-economic, political and cultural factors.
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Putzel, J., 2004, 'The Politics of 'Participation: Civil Society, the State and Development Assistance', Crisis States Discussion Paper no. 1, Development Studies Institute, London
What kind of participation may promote poverty reduction? What should donor attitudes be concerning the promotion of ‘participation’ and ‘participatory processes’ of decision-making? This paper by the London School of Economics suggests that discussions about promoting participation must start from, and engage with, the realities of how and where ordinary and poor people actually are organised.
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Pro-poor participation

Increasing democratisation and decentralisation of governments in developing countries has not automatically resulted in increased participation of the poor.

Manor, J., 2004, 'Democratization with Inclusion: Political Reforms and People's Empowerment at the Grassroots', Journal of Human Development, volume 5, issue 1, pp. 5 -29
In recent years, many governments in developing countries have democratised their political systems. However, this process has not automatically benefited poor people. Many governments in developing countries have recently undertaken political reforms to promote the empowerment and inclusion of ordinary people, especially the poor. This Journal of Human Development article reviews these reforms and looks at how they can be measured and facilitated.
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Blomkvist, H., 2003, 'Participation, Social Interaction, and the Quality of Democracy in India', Paper presented at the annual meeting of the The American Political Science Association Philadelphia Mariott Hotel, Philadelphia
Is government responsiveness to citizen’s demands affected by different types of political participation? Is responsiveness affected by social interaction and does it depend on historically evolved political structures? This paper from Uppsala University, Sweden draws on evidence gathered from 3,200 personal interviews with citizens in five Indian states; Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and West Bengal in exploring these questions.
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Alatas, V., Pritchett, L. and Wetterberg, A., 2002, 'Voice Lessons: Local Government Organizations, Social Organizations, and the Quality of Local Governance', Working Paper 2981, World Bank, Washington D.C.
Is all citizen participation a good thing? Or, do certain types of citizen participation improve local governance more than others? This paper, coming out of the World Bank’s Local Level Institutions study of local life in villages in rural Indonesia, examines the relationship between the involvement of villagers in social activities and the quality of local governance.
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Barriers to participation

There are many barriers to political participation for the poor, for example, illiteracy, institutionalised sexism and lack of time. It is essential that development practitioners are realistic about the level of participation that is practically possible for many poor communities and that participation projects are designed taking potential barriers into account.

Golooba-Mutebi, F., 2004, 'Reassessing Popular Participation in Uganda', Public Administration and Development, vol. 24, no. 4 , pp. 289-304
Political parties are essential to democracy, and indeed the vitality of a democracy can be measured by the condition of parties within that democracy. While some have argued that political parties are in decline and no longer function as they once did, it is USAID's opinion that they remain indispensable to the promotion and support of democracy in developing and transition countries because they organise, aggregate and articulate the political interests of citizens.
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Civic education

Donor enthusiasm to promote political participation has often resulted in 'civic education' programmes that aim to enhance citizenship and participation in the recipient country. However, after decades of donor investment in civic education programmes, recent research is showing mixed results.

Sabatini, C. and Finkel, S., 2002, 'Adult Civic Education in Developing Democracies: Policy Implications from a Three-Country Study', paper presented at the 98th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, 28th August – 1st September, Boston
This paper from the APSA conference reports the results of an on-going study on the effectiveness of adult civic education programmes in the Dominican Republic, Poland and South Africa. The impact of civic education was ascertained by comparing the responses of individuals who had undergone civic education training (a 'treatment group') to the responses of similar individuals who had not been trained (what we call the 'control group'). A total of ten civic education programmes in all three countries were evaluated in terms of their ability to affect the participation, knowledge, and democratic orientation of participants. The paper presents the implications of the study's findings and its conclusions for the role and implementation of civic education programmes.
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Hansen, G., 2002, 'Approaches to Civic Education: Lessons Learned', Office of Democracy and Governance, United States Agency for International Development, Washington, D.C.
Beginning in 1996, the United States Agency for International Development’s Centre for Democracy and Governance initiated this major multi-part study designed to measure the impact of both adult and school-based civic education programmes on participants' democratic behaviour and attitudes in the Dominican Republic, Poland, and South Africa. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study represents a pioneering effort, both as a research initiative and as a practical application in managing for results in the democracy sector. The results of the study show that civic education programmes appear to contribute to significantly greater rates of political participation among programme participants, especially at the local level.
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Gender and participation

The following resources examine the participation of women in various political contexts.

Johnson, D., Kabuchu, H. and Vusiya, S., 2003, 'Women in Ugandan Local Government: The Impact of Affirmative Action', Gender and Development, vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 8-18
Since the mid-1990s, the Ugandan government has introduced legislation to ensure that women are represented on local councils. What has changed as a result of this affirmative action? This article for Gender and Development looks at both the positive and negative impact of women’s presence in local government. It finds that although there is now greater acceptance of women community leaders, their influence over public decision making remains limited.
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Karam, A., 1998, 'Beyond Token Representation', in Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers, ed. A. Karam, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Stockholm, pp. 191 – 198
This concluding chapter from an International IDEA publication gives an overview of the socio-economic and socio-cultural obstacles to women's participation in politics and offers recommendations on how to overcome them, drawing on case studies from Russia, Egypt, Scandinavia, India, Costa Rica and South Africa. 
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Toolkits

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2001, Citizens as Partners; OECD Handbook on Information, Consultation and Public Participation in Policy Making, OECD, Paris
This OECD Handbook explores the background, pressure and objectives for governments seeking to become engaged in this area. It presents an overview of current state-of-the-art practices in informing, consulting and engaging citizens in policy-making, and focuses particularly on the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool to achieve this, rather than as an end in itself.
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What other resources are available on the GSDRC?

Users of this page may also be interested in the following related GSDRC guides:

• The decentralisation page of this guide to political systems
• User involvement and accountability within the service delivery guide

Use the site search at the top of the page if you wish to look for wider resources on political parties.

Additional information resources

CIVICUS is a world alliance for citizen participation that aims to strengthen citizen action and civil society throughout the world.

BRIDGE the gender and development research and information service, has a web guide and several resources on gender and participation.

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