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How Can Citizen Participation Enhance Development?
158 Alta Fölscher
Citizen participation in the allocation and use oflocal public funds can enhance development outcomes,for several reasons.First,citizens have the best knowledge oftheir needs,their preferences,and local conditions.Their participation in decision making makes it more likely that available funds will be used to deliver the goods and services most needed,thereby improving government effectiveness.Participation contributes to better public policy and better policy implementation.2
Second,citizen participation improves vertical,or social,accountability. When citizens are engaged in planning,funding,delivering,and monitoring public goods and services,the incentives and pressures on public officials and officeholders change.Officials become more accountable for the choices they make on behalfofcitizens;as a result corruption is less likely and effectiveness and efficiency increase.Citizens’perceptions change as they learn to see themselves as the clients ofgovernment.Development partners emphasize these changes as objectives ofparticipatory programs,particularly in countries with poor governance environments,such as Bangladesh and Indonesia. As Edstrom (2002,p.2) notes,the aim is to “institute transparency and democracy from the bottom up in a country [Indonesia] where serious abuse of office and top-down planning have been endemic.[Participatory governance] calls on villagers to demand accountability from both the government and their neighbors,and to take responsibility for the investments they deem important.”Participatory governance systems “embody the aspiration of making government at local levels more responsive to citizens and more effective in service delivery through building in participation and accountability”(McGee 2003,p.6).3
Third,participatory budgeting has the potential to improve the quality ofdemocracy.Participation in public decision making is a form ofdirect democracy that allows for a more meaningful democratic relationship between citizens and government than that provided by representative democracy (McGee 2003).Participation can also provide marginalized groups with access to policy makers.In any political system,already powerful and economically advantaged groups have easier access to the state than marginalized groups.Purely representative democracies are unlikely toaddress this imbalance,particularly ifthey are already highly unequal. When participatory elements are introduced into governance systems, theopportunities for redress increase,as institutionalized participatory mechanisms lower the entry barriers for engagement with the state and
