Citizen Participation in Social Policy: The End of the Cycle?

Organizational Change, Citizen Participation, and Voluntary Action

“…In practice, advocacy of citizen participation has been perceived in power terms (Spiegel, 1971: 18). To the extent that the poor were able to acquire power within urban programs, and when such power was used to challenge conventional political and administrative structures, governmental action to reverse the trend toward participant power was quickly forthcoming (Curtis and Zurcher, 1971;Helfgot, 1974;Van Til and Van Til, 1970). The range of forces brought to bear by existing powerholders faced by power-oriented citizen participation efforts is well illus-9/ trated by what happened when the Mobilization for Youth agency launched attacks, including mass demonstrations, against established service organizations.…”

“…There has been a strong tendency for urban renewal and poverty program &dquo;citizen participation&dquo; bodies to come under the control of representatives of the poor (Curtis and Zurcher, 1971;Van Til and Van Til, 1970). Such representatives tend to have higher levels of education and income, and to experience greater employment stability than their &dquo;constituents&dquo;.…”

Community Participation

“…For example, early in this century an ambitious effort to cultivate local initiatives, the Cincinnati Social Unit Plan, was attempted (Shaffer, 1971). From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, the Ford Foundation Gray Area Projects, War on Poverty, Model Cities and community mental health and health planning efforts provided exceptional opportunities for the involvement of local residents in policy making and program development and implementation (Altshuler, 1970;Gilbert, 1970;Kolter, 1969;Marris & Rein, 1967;Mott 1969;Moynihan, 1969;National Commission on Community Health Services, 1966;Spiegel, 1968;Van Til & Van Til, 1970;Verba, 1967). This same period was notable for efforts to mobilize youth/students, ethnic groups, women, gay men and lesbians, persons with disabilities, the elderly, the poor and groups that sought to influence other policies, for example the effort to stop the war in Vietnam.…”

Voluntary participation: implications for social change and conflict in a community decision organization

“…Specifically, conflicts were resultant of several interdependent factors: (1) the manner in which resources or funds were allocated across target areas, and 2the perceived role of citizens in the planning and decision-making processes. The role of citizen participation was also found to be a key issue in community action, poverty boards, and model city agencies (Zurcher, 1970a;Van Til and Van Til, 1970;Capps, 1970;Richards and Goudy, 1971).…”

“…Numerous studies have discussed the conflict of understanding component of domain conflict in community development programs (Amstein, 1969;Van Til and Van Til, 1970;Capps, 1970;Warren, e;t al* » 1974;Richards and Goudy, 1973). Client and grassroots participation forms of involvement emerge from the literature.…”