ABSTRACT
Introduction Policies aimed at improving governance are often meant to avoid the real politically contentious issues of power in society, according to Hout and Robison (this volume, p. 4). Along the same lines it can be argued that civil-society participation encouraged by donors in governance programmes is often rather token and limited to calculated stakeholder participation (Carroll, this volume, p. 138). In the debate about formulating and implementing Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRSs) it is therefore often argued that these processes generate little genuine participation by the poor, or by their legal representatives (Hatcher, this volume, p. 123 ff.). Instead, it is sometimes believed that donor-driven participation eventually leads to the strengthening of ‘a technocratic NGO policy elite’ that is disconnected from the poor and does not enhance their inclusion in the policy process (Gould 2005). Others have argued that, despite all its shortcomings, there is a real potential in these governance programmes when participation is linked to ‘rights’, generating a range of new opportunities for participatory governance, in particular at the local level (Gaventa 2004).
