The Citizen participation democracy dichotomy

Abstract

The concept of citizen participation has come to be closely associated with democracy. While the two concepts share a lot in common, there has been a tendency by those in power to manipulate the socially marginalized in the name of citizen participation and democracy. Electoral processes have produced disputed results because although citizens will have partaken in the electoral process, but in most cases they got the leadership that they do not deserve. This has resulted in the Government of National Unity [GNUs] formations in recent times, mostly popularized by incumbent political leaders who do not want to accept electoral defeat. Electoral processes have been instituted as a manifestation of citizen participation in the decision-making processes in efforts to decide who should preside over a state. Bureaucrats have manipulated the concept of citizen participation for their own political survival through enacting legislation that would render citizen involvement a formality where genuine participation would have yielded beneficial results for the people.