Participation and Institutionalization: Perspectives in urban policies

Abstract

The democratic crisis expressed by high electoral abstention, distrust in political system and rise of authoritarianism signals the importance of bringing citizens back to the political debate (Fung, 2015). Several authors argue that the renovation of democracy will take place around the political debate about cities, while undergoing intense transformations (Falanga, 2020). It is urgent to rethink participation in urban policies and the evolution of planning instruments and methodologies, helping to confront the decision making with the realityof socio-economic inequalities and environmental imbalances that accompany urban development. Although the urban political discourse contemplates participation, the existing instruments prove to be ineffective and expose known problems. Literature indicates that the effectiveness of participation arises from the interactive dynamics between institutional design - referring to norms and procedures that determine in what, who, how and when one participates, to contextual elements - which include social capital, political will, management implementation capacity and governance issues (Avritzer, 2008; Smith, 2009).