Citizen Participation

Since the 1950s, citizen participation programs and initiatives have been undertaken and implemented in many different countries at various levels of government, from the national level to the municipal. This thinking about the involvement of citizens in public affairs took many decades to take form and expression. An important share of these actions came from international development agencies looking for the best ways to implement development [Page 82]projects. The rationale for all these actions is that when citizens become actively involved as participants in their democracy, the governance that emerges from this process will be more democratic and more effective.

Citizen participation plays a critical role in the development of green city policies and is explicitly supported by the United Nations’ Local Agenda 21, which calls ...