Participatory Frustration: The Unintended Cultural Effect of Local Democratic Innovations

• Author: José Luis Fernández-Martínez,Patricia García-Espín,Manuel Jiménez-Sánchez
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• Date: 01 May 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095399719833628
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399719833628

Administration & Society

2020, Vol. 52(5) 718 –748

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399719833628

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Article

Participatory Frustration:

The Unintended

Cultural Effect of Local

Democratic Innovations

José Luis Fernández-Martínez1,2 ,

Patricia García-Espín1,

and Manuel Jiménez-Sánchez3

Abstract

Most research on participatory processes has stressed the positive effects

that these institutions have in the relationships between public authorities

and civil society. This article analyzes a more negative product that

has received scant attention: participatory frustration. Departing from

Hirschman’s cycles of involvement and detachment, the article shows

four paths toward frustration after engaging in institutional participatory

processes: (a) inflated expectations, (b) the failure of design and adjusting

mechanisms, (c) poor results, and (d) abrupt discontinuations. Drawing

on six cases in Spanish cities, this article proposes a reflection on how

participatory reforms can contribute to feed frustration and political

disenchantment.

Keywords

participatory processes, local politics, participatory budgeting, advisory

councils, civil society, frustration

1Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas,

Córdoba, Spain

2Universidad de Granada, Spain

3Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain

Corresponding Author:

Manuel Jiménez-Sánchez, Departamento de Sociología, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. de

Utrera, Km.1, Sevilla 41013, Spain.

Email: mjimsan@upo.es

833628AASXXX10.1177/0095399719833628Administration & SocietyFernández-Martínez et al.

research-article2019

Fernández-Martínez et al. 719

Democratic theorists have conceived the “participatory turn” of political

systems (Barber, 1984; Pateman, 2012) as a way to address the growing

disaffection and discontent among citizens (Dalton & Welzel, 2015;

Norris, 2011; Torcal & Montero, 2006). The introduction of participatory

processes1 (henceforth PPs) has consistently been justified by the idea that

expanding engagement opportunities for citizens and associations will

decrease popular feelings of discontent and detachment (Baiocchi &

Ganuza, 2016; Holdo, 2016; Nabatchi, Gastil, Weiksner, & Leighninger,

2012; Pharr & Putnam, 2000). However, is it possible that these policy

instruments designed to confront political disaffection fail to reduce feel-

ings of discontent and detachment.

The empirical research that focuses on the impacts of PPs is rather diverse

in scope, and the results are far from clear-cut (Campbell, Escobar, Fenton, &

Craig, 2018; Mazeaud & Nonjon, 2015; Mazeaud, Vilas, & Berthomé, 2012).

Overall, this literature suggests that the capacity of PPs to transform estab-

lished patterns of interaction between citizens and political authorities is

rather limited. On the positive side, researchers have stressed effects such as

individual political learning (Funes, Talpin, & Rull, 2014; Pincock, 2012;

Talpin, 2012), the promotion of social capital (Abers, 2007; Bherer et al.,

2016; Wampler, 2012), the inclusion of previously excluded social groups

(Baiocchi, 2005; Hernández-Medina, 2010; Wampler, 2007), and the

enhancement of perceived responsiveness (Pogrebinschi & Ryan, 2017). On

the negative side, other authors have observed resistance on the part of

diverse actors (neighborhood associations, political representatives, and pub-

lic officials), the continuation of established power relations (Ganuza, Nez, &

Morales, 2014; Walker, McQuarrie, & Lee, 2015), exclusion of actors based

on their politics (Navarro, 1999; Parkinson, 2006), as well as the withdrawal

of discontented individuals or groups (Font & Navarro, 2013). Hanson (2017)

has pointed out how poorly designed PPs can contribute to a negative public

perception of participation. Negative effects have, however, received less

attention in the literature on PPs. These negative effects most likely occur in

contexts where participatory politics are not clearly institutionalized and

respond to political impulses or initiatives marked by short-term electoral

logics or cooptation strategies (Bherer et al., 2016). As Hibbing and Theiss-

Morse (2012) claimed, “a proper reading of the evidence suggests that the

consequences of popular participation are often neutral or negative; thus, we

believe a key task of future research is determining those limited situations in

which participation can be beneficial” (p. 5).

This study aims to contribute to filling this empirical gap in the literature

by focusing on participatory frustration as a set of feelings that may emerge

among participants in the course of PPs. Both the conceptualization of