Problems and contradictions of participatory democracy: lessons from Latin America

Building the Foundations of Collaboration: From Housing Development to Community Renewal

“…This signals a further contribution arising from our research pertaining to the uneasy relationship between participative and representative democracy, particularly in settings where the very legitimacy of the state has been compromised. Perhaps not surprisingly, there has been a strong thread of scholarship emerging in political theory (Parvin, 2020) and in applied research in places where this loss of legitimacy is readily apparent (Modise, 2017;Balderacchi, 2016), yet a coalescence of these themes within the collaborative urban planning and governance literature from "healthy" Western democracies is relatively weak. In positing a foundational stage of collaboration, we have identified points at which some rapprochement may be achieved: deeper involvement on-site of elected members and officials and the co-design and even co-operation of the issue/agenda and means of implementation.…”

Propuesta metodológica para la medición del índice de democracia electoral plebiscitaria basada en el proyecto Varieties of Democracy

“…El índice de democracia electoral (IDE) no se centra lo suficiente en la participación ciudadana en la toma de decisiones políticas. Bajo estas preocupaciones, son varios los autores que incluyen los elementos participativos en la democracia electoral (Anduiza et al, 2008;Peruzzotti, 2012;Altman, 2013b;Balderacchi, 2016) con elementos reales para caracterizarla (Córdova, 2006).…”

Indonesian local politics and the marriage of elite interests: Case study of elite democracy in Gorontalo

“…If we look at the phenomenon of democratic transitions in several countries, which were previously dominated by authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, the main problem lies in the issue of regulating the authority of legitimate power in a social polity and what kind of governance model to use. The participatory democracy model says that direct and broad citizen participation in the decision-making process is fundamental to the legitimacy of democracy (Balderacchi 2016). Roberts (in Balderacchi 2016) implicitly shows that political legitimacy is determined by the accountability of a government chosen from popular election results, shifting from an elitist model of government that does not provide sovereign space for individuals to engage independently and freely in the decision-making process.…”