In order to address the disconnection between the governing and the governed in our democracies and bureaucracies, many practitioners and academics are looking at models such as participatory governance to increase empowerment and foster better decision- making. Although this model has some encouraging possibilities, there are challenges to implementing an empowering and participatory process. To better understand these issues, this research focused on tenant representatives’ understanding and experience of their role in a recently implemented participatory process in the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. Representatives reported taking on extensive responsibilities to improve their communities and interviews with tenants suggested empowerment and citizenship were often products of tenant participation. The research also found limitations on empowerment and the extent to which tenants saw themselves as agents and decision-makers in the Tenant Participation System. The paper connects how structure and education impacts the possibilities for agency and empowerment of participants.

In order to address the disconnection between the governing and the governed in our democracies and bureaucracies, many practitioners and academics are looking at models such as participatory governance to increase empowerment and foster better decision- making. Although this model has some encouraging possibilities, there are challenges to implementing an empowering and participatory process. To better understand these issues, this research focused on tenant representatives’ understanding and experience of their role in a recently implemented participatory process in the Toronto Community Housing Corporation. Representatives reported taking on extensive responsibilities to improve their communities and interviews with tenants suggested empowerment and citizenship were often products of tenant participation. The research also found limitations on empowerment and the extent to which tenants saw themselves as agents and decision-makers in the Tenant Participation System. The paper connects how structure and education impacts the possibilities for agency and empowerment of participants.

This research is an evaluation of the addition of a citizen involvement process that has come to be known as "visioning" or "community visioning" to the traditional process of developing a state's transportation plan, a process which has typically been very much an in-government and esoteric province of professionals in transportation planning. The research specifically focuses on the Commonwealth of Virginia and its addition of three citizen participation components the Commonwealth labeled "community visioning" to the traditional transportation planning process. The research examines the three components of "community visioning" with regard to: (1) their impact on the state's transportation plan (VTrans2025); (2) the degree to which they met the expectations of the regulations and best practices requirements of federal oversight; (3) the degree to which they met the expectations of the advocates of visioning and of more "democratic participation" in pubic administrative and policy processes; and (4) the degree to which they could affect the final outcome of transportation policy. Visioning is a relatively new approach to citizen involvement in the planning process. It places the citizen involvement at the beginning of the process instead of the end. Visioning asks citizens key questions about what they envision as a positive future for their community. The purpose or goal of this new visioning is to have the final plans reflect the vision drawn from the citizens and public officials and reached through consensus. This dissertation determined that Virginia put forth a good faith effort to involve citizens of the Commonwealth. Collectively, the citizen involvement activities in VA’s visioning process were reasonable and meaningful. Additionally, Virginia’s vision statement was heavily influenced by the citizen participation activities. However, there are three aspects of Virginia’s vision that are troubling from an implementation standpoint. In short, this dissertation found that the vision is what the people want, but the comprehensive plan does not tell the citizens how the Commonwealth intends on achieving that vision. / Ph. D.

Esta dissertação discorre sobre movimentos sociais e democracia com o objetivo de descrever e analisar o papel dos movimentos sociais na consolidação da democracia participativa no Brasil. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório, conduzido por meio de investigação teórica, mediante pesquisa bibliográfica e documental. Os resultados deste estudo revelaram que os movimentos sociais enfrentam muitas dificuldades, especialmente, em relação ao poder estatal. Dentre as conclusões, pode-se afirmar que, apesar de suas fragilidades, geralmente os movimentos sociais constituem uma resposta eficaz que contribui na consolidação da democracia e na efetivação de direitos fundamentais. / This dissertation discusses social movements and democracy in order to describe and analyze the role of social movements in the consolidation of participatory democracy in Brazil. It is an exploratory study, conducted through theoretical research, in bibliographical and documentary research. The results of this study revealed that social movements face many difficulties, especially in relation to state power. Among the conclusions, it can be said that, despite their weaknesses, social movements constitute an effective response that contributes to the consolidation of democracy and the realization of fundamental rights.

This thesis is a critique and proposed reform of the decision-making process under the European Patent Convention 1973, Article 53(a) as it relates to morality. It postulates that the manner in which the morality bar is currently managed is inappropriate as it relies on patent officials to make the initial decision as to whether the patent application is morally permissible or not. In a pluralistic world, morality is understood differently by a wide variety of people but this is not currently being acknowledged within the patent system. Whilst there is an option to bring opposition proceedings to challenge patent grants, this onus is considerable on the challenger and any debate is then played out by a very small sector of highly specialised experts, often with very differing views on morality. This thesis seeks to broaden the decision-making process to reflect society's pluralism. Officials, it will be argued, should instead of trying to decide what constitutes morality in a realm of such importance for humanity as a whole, administer a system which facilitates public participation and a vote. This will be based on existing models of widespread public deliberation and participation, albeit not ones that currently operate in (or near) the patent world. At present, criticisms in the legal literature tend to suggest more deliberation in the patent field and more participation is recommended in science literature but the logistics are unexplored and will be brought together in this work, making an original contribution to knowledge. In order to achieve its aim, the thesis employs a pluralistic methodology which includes doctrinal, socio-legal and interdisciplinary facets which will enable the construction of a model for reform of the patent system in the domain of morality. This will come from outside of traditional legal mechanisms such as legislative, judicial or patent office reform solutions, as a far-reaching paradigm is envisaged. The claim to originality lies in the extraction of principles from deliberative and participatory models of democracy and their application to the decision-making process in morally controversial biotechnological patents.

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / There is enough evidence and common consensus in literature that although strategy implementation is a challenge to many organisations, it is strategy formulation that continues to receive more attention. It is also evident that municipalities In South Africa, let alone Limpopo Province, experience certain barriers to strategy implementation. Given this situation, this study highlights the most frequent barriers to strategy implementation in general and attempts to identify and describe barriers that impede strategy implementation in a municipal context. It further recommends, from a systems theory point of view, a strategy implementation framework that recognises the importance of multiple strategy implementation factors as well as participatory democracy in local government.

<p>The aim and research questions of this study are concerned about how, and what kind of, problems and subjects that citizens raise during verbal interaction with politicians and officials in the field of participatory democracy. The theoretical framework of the study dominates by theories with a positive approach towards participatory democracy, but there is also a broader discussion on the phenomenon’s strengths and weaknesses.</p><p>The case in focus of the study is a specific phenomenon of participatory democracy created by the municipality of Växjö. The empirical material that is analysed is consisted of written text based on the verbal interaction from these meetings between citizens and politicians/officials.</p><p>The outcome of the study shows that most of the verbal interaction was held between citizens and politicians/officials in a vertical direction and that a major part of the responsibility concerning the raised subjects is estimated to be in the hands of the latter part. In the light of under what circumstances the meetings are practised, the democratic and collective minded performance of the citizens is argued to be in good condition, despite the dominating vertical interaction and estimation of trust.</p>

This cross-disciplinary study extends existing theoretical and normative arguments regarding participatory democracy and adult informal learning by identifying the ways in which participation in community-based governance structures provides learning opportunities and builds individuals’ civic capacity. It also determines the functional characteristics of such schemes by analyzing the case of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s Tenant Participation System (TPS), a state-sponsored program to integrate principles of participatory democracy into the norms of public service delivery. As has been noted in the literature, people are motivated to participate for a variety of reasons, the most common being that they see a real need or potential for change in their community. However, in contrast to past research, tenants also got engaged out of a desire to learn – to learn more about local political procedures. Three conditions were noted as both sufficient and necessary to make participation happen. One was the desire to influence authority over decisions affecting tenants’ housing conditions. Second was the idea that participation has important benefits for the participants. Third was a sense of qualification, that those tenants who participate feel that they are qualified, more than others, thus they choose to step forward to represent their communities. Informal learning through the TPS had several key effects. Increased self-confidence and overcoming fear of authority helped to radically transform the traditional tenant-management relationship into a collaborative endeavour in which tenants get the opportunity to be part of the change they would like to see. In addition, the skills learned through the participatory process resulted in increased managerial efficiency – a self-reinforcing process whereby the participatory project improves through time and through the very act of participation. Learning, however, occurred through cooperation, competition and struggle as well. This study reveals two major challenges. First, the lack of discussion amongst stakeholders regarding the purpose of participation has, in some instances, resulted in confusing practices that complicate the process and eventually hinder the growth of a participatory culture within the organization. Second, conceiving community participation through competitive elections tends to move the collaborative approach to community governance closer to the hierarchical paradigm of property management.

This cross-disciplinary study extends existing theoretical and normative arguments regarding participatory democracy and adult informal learning by identifying the ways in which participation in community-based governance structures provides learning opportunities and builds individuals’ civic capacity. It also determines the functional characteristics of such schemes by analyzing the case of the Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s Tenant Participation System (TPS), a state-sponsored program to integrate principles of participatory democracy into the norms of public service delivery. As has been noted in the literature, people are motivated to participate for a variety of reasons, the most common being that they see a real need or potential for change in their community. However, in contrast to past research, tenants also got engaged out of a desire to learn – to learn more about local political procedures. Three conditions were noted as both sufficient and necessary to make participation happen. One was the desire to influence authority over decisions affecting tenants’ housing conditions. Second was the idea that participation has important benefits for the participants. Third was a sense of qualification, that those tenants who participate feel that they are qualified, more than others, thus they choose to step forward to represent their communities. Informal learning through the TPS had several key effects. Increased self-confidence and overcoming fear of authority helped to radically transform the traditional tenant-management relationship into a collaborative endeavour in which tenants get the opportunity to be part of the change they would like to see. In addition, the skills learned through the participatory process resulted in increased managerial efficiency – a self-reinforcing process whereby the participatory project improves through time and through the very act of participation. Learning, however, occurred through cooperation, competition and struggle as well. This study reveals two major challenges. First, the lack of discussion amongst stakeholders regarding the purpose of participation has, in some instances, resulted in confusing practices that complicate the process and eventually hinder the growth of a participatory culture within the organization. Second, conceiving community participation through competitive elections tends to move the collaborative approach to community governance closer to the hierarchical paradigm of property management.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF UMIT KARTAL, for the Master of Arts degree in PHILOSOPHY, presented on September 29, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PUBLIC SPACE MUST BE DEFENDED. HANNAH ARENDT'S CONCEPTION OF POLITICS AND THE PUBLIC SPACE: ITS PROMISES AND LIMITS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Kenneth Stikkers This thesis is an examination of Hannah Arendt's reconsideration of the meaning of politics and her systematic search for the recovery of the public spaces. Her scrutiny of the meaning of politics is determined by the disastrous outcomes of totalitarian experiences from both ends of the political spectrum, namely, Nazism and Stalinism. For Arendt, the phenomenon of totalitarianism deserted the human world and brought new issues forth, such as statelessness, rightlessness, homelessness, and worldlessness. These phenomena, Arendt holds, run parallel to the collapse of the essential articulations of the human condition, which can be distinguished in sheer thoughtlessness, speechlessness, and lack of judgment. It is due to these unprecedented and unanticipated issues, which cannot be addressed by traditional political categories, Arendt invites us to grapple with the meaning of politics anew. The basic definition of politics, for Arendt, is human plurality, namely, our coexistence in a common world which enables differences and diversities of perspectives to appear. The question what politics means, for Arendt, is inextricably tied to what its distinctive locus is, namely, the public space or space of appearances. The emergence of the social resulted in blurring the distinctive line between the public realm and the private realm. Then, the recovery of the public space is of a central place in Arendt's political theory. Through Arendt's reconsideration of the meaning of politics and the recovery of the public space we are provided a comprehensive framework to think about a more inclusive and democratic politics. Nevertheless, we are challenged by a set of problems: a very sharp distinction between the public realm and the private realm, a contrast between the social and political, and a lack of systematic interest in democracy. First, I concentrate on Arendt's insightful analysis of politics and the public space in turn. Then I focus on the problematic aspects of her political theory. Finally, I argue that these problematic aspects can be complemented by a comparative reading of Arendt with John Dewey. I conclude that Dewey offers us a more dynamic criterion to decide the line between the private realm and the public realm. Instead of opposing the social to political, Dewey extends the scope of politics by taking every aspects of social life into consideration. The recovery of the public, for him, depends essentially on democracy, which is identified to the experience of local community.