Since 1991 the promotion of participatory development has been a cornerstone of German bilateral foreign and development policy. Participation – the active involvement of citizens in processes that affect their lives – is increasingly being seen as a key condition for a functioning democracy and for poverty alleviation.
While participation now is a prevalent crosscutting theme on the new policy agenda (NPA) , an ever increasing implementation gap can be observed. Based on information gathered from four and a half years of field research and his personal observations as a development practitioner in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 until 2007, the author looks at both structural and cognitive barriers to effective policy implementation.
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