Learning from Citizen Participation and Citizen Action in Western Europe

For participation advocates, citizen involvement in government decision making is synonymous with:(1) democratization of resource allocation choices,(2) decentralization of service systems management,(3) deprofessionalization of bureaucratic judgments that affect the lives of residents, and (4) dmystification of design and investment decisions (Alinsky, 1946; Illich, 1970; Kotier, 1969).