Historical perspectives on participation in development

Participation in development came to be popularised in the 1990s as a novel, common-sense way to address a range of development ills. Its institutionalisation over the course of that decade in the discourses, if not the practices, of many mainstream development organisations promised a new approach that would give 'the poor' more voice and choice in development. This article traces precedents for this more recent wave of enthusiasm for participation back to the colonial era, revealing arguments that begin to sound like a broken record - along with the broken promises of the transformations that greater participation should bring about - that span the best part of a century. Highlighting the culturally specific notions of democracy and governance that are embedded in the various permutations that discourses of participation have taken over this period, it questions whether the limited institutional recipes purveyed by northern development agencies can ever produce the benefits that are claimed of participation in development.