The Promises and Pitfalls of Participation

Abstract

Over the past ten years there has been an increased awareness of the importance of stakeholder involvement and public participation in policy making. However, despite the general consensus that stakeholder participation is important within decision-making, the debate as to how that participation should be undertaken and how the various methods for participation should be evaluated continues. This paper presents a number of possible evaluation criteria, suggesting that the appraisal of both procedures and outcomes needs to include consideration of the legitimacy of the procedure, in addition to the more common efficiency evaluation of procedures and outcomes. Together with experience from case studies, these criteria are then used to highlight the main promises and pitfalls of the various participation procedures.