Public Participation, Decentralization, Democracy and Development: Illustrations from Asia

'Development' as a term and as a notion gives the impression of being gradually evolving with its main focus being the common people with social systems helping them organize their activities in fulfilling their material and social needs. The time-honoured postulation of development as encompassing purely economic trajectories occurring under the cloud of colonialism, urbanisation and industrialisation (Ghosh, 2001) has been generally altered by the integration of a more human centred approach, incorporating notions of social equity, empowerment and capacity building. The theory of development has, in part, been redefined to capture human development goals. Goulet (1992: 468) describes development as a "multidimensional progress" attempting to encapsulate "society in all realms - economic, social, political, cultural, environmental, and spiritual". Therefore, for development to be a viable process, interwoven and reinforced by the complexities of society and addressing underlying social factors hindering poverty reduction, certainly the active input from those affected is critical to any success.