Public support for participation in local development

• Published in: World development Vol. 178; p. 106569
• Main Authors: Hofer, Katrin, Wicki, Michael, Kaufmann, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-06-2024
• Subjects: Infrastructure; Mixed methods; Public participation; Public support; Survey experiment; Infrastructure; Public support; Mixed methods; Survey experiment; Public participation
• ISSN: 0305-750X; 1873-5991
• DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106569

•People of Bramfischerville strongly support participation in local development, despite being aware of its transaction costs.•Support is higher for more inclusive and interactive participation, i.e., processes which invite all residents to discuss priorities and needs.•People’s support is context-specific. In our study, they are shaped by infrastructural preconditions and people’s relationship with the state.•This study builds on a context-sensitive and mixed methods research design, combining a survey experiment with qualitative group interviews.•We contribute to theoretical discussions on participation as well as to the yet scarce experience with survey experiments in the Global South.
Public participation in local development is an integral part of democratic agendas across the world. Yet not much research specifically focuses on people’s perspectives of participation, especially among underprivileged populations. Gaining a better understanding of people’s support for public participation is, however, important as it may inform people’s interest in future engagements with the state for local development. This paper contributes to the extensive interdisciplinary literature on public participation in local development by taking a people-centric view. Drawing on an original face-to-face vignette survey experiment (n = 502) and group interviews in Bramfischerville, a low-income residential area in Johannesburg, we examine whether people generally support public participation in local development and explore how different design features of participatory processes inform public support for participation. Overall, our mixed methods study reveals strong support for public participation, with higher support levels for more inclusive and interactive forms, meaning processes, which are open to all residents and where participants are invited to discuss priorities and needs. This, despite people’s awareness of the transaction costs of participation, such as time and energy. Moreover, we find that people’s support for participation is influenced by their experiences and satisfaction with infrastructure provision. These findings underline the importance of understanding the specificities of the given socio-economic context and people’s everyday lived realities. It also draws attention to people’s relationship with the state, as the main provider of this infrastructure. Therefore, a context-sensitive interpretation of people’s infrastructural preconditions and their relationship with the state are necessary to understand their attitudes towards participation and, more generally, for advancing participatory governance in the given context and beyond.