The active role of community-based organizations in the local redefinition of national policies

Abstract

The community-based organizations are an important partner of national States towards promoting community participation and sustainable development, and engaging citizens and other organizations in the decision making of local governance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of local organizations in the design and delivery of social services, with a particular focus on the impact of their own political orientation and strategy in the local redefinition of national policies. The data presented in this paper is the result of an external consulting and assessment work, requested and financed by the two projects in analysis, by the use of a multiple and mixed-method research design conducted over three phases and during four years. The results reveal that Portuguese community organizations are far from being a passive partner which merely executes guidelines when in partnership with the State. On the contrary, main findings support the idea that these organizations aim at the promotion of local (social and economic) development and can play an important mediation role between programmatic guidelines and their execution, strongly reflecting their own political identity in both the process and the results.