From Political Won't to Political Will: Building Support for Participatory Governance

Despite a recent wave of democratization around the world, traditional systems of representative democracy seem to be in crisis. Citizens in both the North and South lack opportunities, rights, and access to information and have expressed growing disillusionment with their governments. Ordinary citizens (especially women, poor people and other marginalized groups) are largely excluded from the political processes that directly affect their lives.

There is now growing consensus that good governance is participatory governance (PG), but public officials are often reluctant to adopt such an approach. From Political Won't to Political Will addresses the particular challenge of encouraging these officials to involve citizens in the politic process. The book presents contributions by participants from CIVTCUS' 2008 conference on building political will for PG. Representing the perspectives of both civil society and government actors, they propose a number of strategies and lessons such as demonstrating the benefits of PG to governments, complementing formal democratic institutions, building trust, supporting PG champions, and using strategic political timing. Their practical and highly original findings will interest anyone eager to see the empowerment of people around the world.