ABSTRACT
Public participation is not new. There were attempts to promote local involvement in planning decisions in the United Kingdom (UK) as long ago as the 1960s. User involvement has long been a feature of some social services, and community involvement is a pre-condition of funding from most UK and European Union (EU) regeneration programs. Until relatively recently, though, many mainstream services remained under the control of expert professionals who, it was assumed, acted in the best interests of service users and the public at large. Voters could remove unpopular politicians through the ballot-box, but they were not expected to take much of a direct interest in policy debates or the management of public services between elections.
