Historical Evolution of Participatory Democracy
The participatory form of democracy started to develop during ancient civilizations such as Athens, where citizens directly participated in the political activities through assemblies and direct voting. But, the concept started to develop more during the 20th century, with the efforts of political philosophers like Carole Pateman and Robert Dahl.
The concept of participatory democracy started emerging because of civil rights movements, anti-colonial struggles, and demands of social justice during the colonial period to bring out the voice of marginalised groups.
- Participatory democracy has developed as a response to shifts in the condition of society and to provide transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability in the working of government.
- It represents the struggle of democratising the decision-making processes, empowering citizens, and providing equal distribution of power among different communities in the society.
- The participatory democracy is continuously evolving, changing itself according to the traditional challenges and to bring up the technological development in the nation to increase the engagement of citizens in the governance of nations and allows collective decision-making.
Participatory Democracy : Means, Component, & Importance
Rather than choosing a representative to represent them in politics, people of a country with a participatory democracy or Direct democracy actively participate in policy-making. As an experiment, this kind of democracy has been imposed on countries such as Brazil, Uruguay, Iceland, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
In this article, we’ll be learning more about participatory democracy, its components, and its functioning.
Table of Content
- Components of Participatory Democracy
- Participatory Democracy
- Historical Evolution of Participatory Democracy
- Why is Participatory Democracy Important?
- What are the ways to Increase People’s Participation?
- Difference Between Representative Democracy and Participatory Democracy
- Participatory Democracy: A New Feature of Political Participation