Citizen Participation and the Rationale for Program Participation in Social Service Organizations

• Published date: 01 January 1974
• Author: David P. Fauri
• DOI: 10.1177/027507407400800103
• Date: 01 January 1974
• Subject Matter: Articles

42

Citizen

Participation

and

the

Rationale

for

Program

Participation

in

Social

Service

Organizations

DAVID P. FAURI

School

of

Social

Work,

University

of

Tennessee

During

the

past

decade,

citizen

participation

received

considerable

attention,

both

in

practice

and

in

academic

literature.

Frequently

this

at-

tention

has

been

directed

at

participation

as

a

loosely

defined,

undif-

ferentiated

concept.

This

can

result

in

generalizations

and

oversimplifica-

tion

and

a

need

to

define

and

specify

possible

types

of

participation.

The

intent

of

this

article

is

to

specify

a

typology

of

participation

and

explore

program

participation.

Being

a

broad

concept,

participation

may

be

broken

into

pieces

for

categorization

and

interpretation.

Four

categories

are

here

designated.

On

one

extreme,

participation

may

be

used

to

refer

to

traditional

demo-

cratic

participation

in

which

the

individual

participates

in

a

political

process

and

votes

for

individuals

to

represent

him

in

governmental

bodies.

On

the

other

extreme,

it

may

be

used

in

the

less

traditional

and

more

contemporary

sense

of

social

protest.

Between

these

extremes

are

two

other

modes

of

participation

-

community

development

and

program

participa-

tion.

Discussion

and

emphasis

is

placed

on

program

participation

as

it

is

seen

as

offering

a

viable

alternative

for

improving

the

public

administra-

tion

of

social

programs.

Democratic

Participation

Traditional

democratic

participation

has

for

years

been

a

central

topic

of

political

science,

and

voter

behavior

studies

dating

back

to

the

1920s

have

provided

a

wealth

of

knowledge.’

Emmette

Redford

in

Democ-

racy

and

the

Administrative

State

identifies

two

methods

available

to

in-

dividuals

to

participate

in

democratic

decision

making.2

The

first

method

is

&dquo;generalized

participation&dquo;

in

which

individuals

take

part

in

selection

of

persons

to

represent

them

in

the

decision

making

process.

The

second

1

Two

classic

voter

studies

are:

Paul

Lazarsfeld,

Bernard

Berelson

and

Hazel

Gaudet,

The

Peoples

Choice:

How

the

Voter

Makes

Up

His

Mind

in

a

Presidential

Campaign

(New

York:

Duell,

Sloan

&

Pearce,

1944) ;

and

Angus

Campbell,

Phillip

E.

Converse,

Warren

E.

Miller

and

Donald

E.

Stokes,

The

American

Voter

(New

York:

John

Wiley,

1964).

2

Emmette

S.

Redford,

Democracy

in

the

Administrative

State

(New

York:

Oxford,

1969).