External publications

Institutionalization of citizen participation in Africa

Gutheil, Lena / Annabelle Houdret / Sanae Aljem
External Publications (2026)

in: Yves Sintomer / Lionel Cordier, Handbook of Participatory Democracy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 282-298

ISBN: 978-1-03534-019-4
Information

Citizen participation, in various forms, has long played a part in African societies, with mixed results. In line with recent constitutional/decentralization reforms, Morocco and Kenya have shown political will and institutional commitment to invest more in participation. The chapter analyzes the two countries’ participatory approaches as a political agenda that is closely tied to decentralization politics and therewith to power plays between different stakeholders, including donors. Based on a comparison of the two cases, the chapter examines how the newly introduced spaces enable or disenable citizens to challenge power structures. The chapter finds that, despite positive effects in terms of citizen mobilization and partial accountability, the limited scope and scale of participatory institutions means that the outcomes of the approach are procedural rather than politically transformative. At the same time, the different trajectories of the two countries illustrate the importance of embedding the assessment of each case in the history of participatory practices and local political economy.

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