Citizen Participation in Transitional Society: The Evolution of Participatory Planning in Serbia

Abstract

Arnstein used the metaphor of a ladder to describe various examples of citizen participation—from securing political rights to obtaining economic justice. People would obtain greater influence for the places they live in by using types of participation with greater access to political authority. Organized civil disobedience and nonviolent protests proved useful in stopping bad redevelopment and highway projects. However, poor people were not integrated into political positions of influence; some other planning approaches (e.g., advocacy or equity planning) dealt with such efforts (Davidoff, 1965; Krumholz, Cogger, & Linner, 1975). Moreover, the global financial crisis of the 1970s affected the shift towards neoliberal governance, promoting competition. This designated a crisis for citizen participation, too. The neoliberals weakened the legitimacy and coherence of the state as an instrument for enhancing citizen sovereignty, while increasing divisions that enable elites to lobby for favorable financial benefits. However, the social democracy in the US called for citizen participation again—in planning theory this resulted in the “communicative-argumentative turn” (Forester, 1989) and, therefore, the resurgence of Arnstein’s approach....