ABSTRACT
Managing participation is more than including the public in one stage of the design process or in evaluation of the project. This chapter explores the various dimensions of participation in development in order to suggest its potential and possibilities. Traditionally, participation has been identified with partisan or political behavior—voting, campaigning, interest group activity, lobbying. Participation in administrative processes is particularly vulnerable to co-optation and to being used to reinforce the influence of managers. The value of participation varies depending on who is participating at what stage of the administrative process and what kind of activity they are doing. Several studies have used economic models to explain why peasant farmers respond to new agricultural technology, but they can be generalized to explain participation more broadly conceived. If the implementation process becomes a major point at which participation occurs, a great responsibility is placed on administrators.
