ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises the relevant literature on political participation, paying attention to the applicability of various research paradigms to examining agency in non–democratic contexts. The first section distinguishes broadly among three major traditions of viewing political participation in the research literature, namely liberal, developmental, and sociocultural approaches. Although the conceptual boundaries present in these traditions often overlap, each approach is critically discussed in terms of its theoretical assumptions and research focus, groups or actors it tends to focus on as political agents, and specific participatory avenues and mechanisms it deems important for channelling political participation. The final section of the chapter synthesises key issues and problems identified in these traditions and argues for a rapprochement among disciplines to understand the myriad of ways in which political participation finds expression under conditions of limited political freedom. It concludes by pointing towards the need for a framework of political participation centring on people and society in order to appreciate not just diverse contexts of pluralistic expressions of political agency in general but also instances of citizen engagement in particularly authoritarian states.
