Participation (decision making)

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Participation in political science is an umbrella term including different means for the public to directly participate in political, economical or management decisions. The term is also used in management theory (as in "participatory management") to denote a style of management that calls for a high level of participation of workers and supervisors in decisions that affect their work.

For well-informed participation to occur, some version of transparency, e.g. radical transparency, is necessary, but not sufficient.

Sherry Arnstein discusses types of participation and "nonparticipation" in A Ladder of Citizen Participation (1969). She grades levels of participation from Manipulation (least citizen participation) to Citizen Control (most citizen participation). The three (3) categories used are:

Degrees of Citizen Power

Citizen Control
Delegated Power
Partnership

Degrees of Tokenism

Placation
Consultation
Informing

Nonparticipation

Therapy
Manipulation

Arnstein continues to define citizen participation as "the redistribution of power that enables the havenot citizens, presently excluded from the political and economic processes, to be deliberately included in the future".

The complete original text of Arnstein, dating from 1969, but still very valid can be found on http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html

Multiple other "ladders" of participation have been presented, most notably Connor's "A new ladder of citizen participation" (1988), Wiedemann and Femers' "Public Participation in waste management decision making: analysis and management of conflicts" (1993) and Dorcey et al. "Public Involvement in government decision making: choosing the right model" (1994).