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Theory of Participation |
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Any organized, purposive activity requires goals and means to achieve its objectives. Goals refer to results the activity is designed to accomplish. Means refer to ways in which the ends are to be accomplished. How do elements of an organization, that is, individuals, groups, units, agencies, branches, and so on, cooperate to produce a desired outcome? Successful collective action requires participation. BUREAUCRACY AND STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES A “bureaucracy” is a body of nonelective government officials charged with carrying out a public mandate and insulated from outside pressures by primarily vertical principal-agent relations. A bureaucracy function as an agent, not a principal. Bureaucratic government is characterized by specialization of function, adherence to fixed rules. These rules are “Standard Operating Procedures.” If an organization’s task is complex, enduring, and requires the systematic input of several individuals over a long period of time, the organization is apt to adopt “standard operating procedures” to accomplish its goals. Standard operating procedures, “SOPs”, refer to the way that activity is systematized, organized and routinized. SOPs are valuable because they are equitable and transparent. Clear and accessible SOPs apply uniformly to all individuals, thereby defeating favoritism or discrimination. Standard operating procedures typically include: 1) description of the activity; The “capacity” of a bureaucracy refers to its ability to carry out a charge. “Accountability” refer to the obligation or willingness of a bureaucracy to carry out a charge and to accept responsibility or to account for actions. “Responsiveness” refers to the willingness to react to requests and demands. Bureaucracies come in many forms, from the “command style bureaucracy” bureaucracy with a vertical structure to the “participatory bureaucracy” with a horizontal structure. A TYPOLOGY OF FORMAL, CONTRACTUAL PARTNERSHIPS Individuals involved in business may function independently, that is as individuals engaged in a business activity for their own separate purposes. Alternatively, they may find it beneficial to organize their efforts collectively; they thus may choose to function in partnership. There are a number of different types of business partnerships: 1) general partnership These types of partnerships spell out different authorities, responsibilities, privileges, and risks. A general partnership is a business partnership in which the participants bear joint responsibility for the obligations. A limited partnership is a business partnership which includes in addition to any general partners, partners who bear responsibility in an extent limited by the contribution made by them to the charter fund of the partnership (investors) and which do not participate in the exercise of the entrepreneurial activities. A limited liability partnership is a business partnership in which the participants are not liable for the obligations of the business activity and bear the risk of losses associated with the operation of the partnership within the limits of the value of contributions made by them. Partnership with additional liability is one in which the partners are liable for the obligations of the partnership within the contributions made them to the charter fund and where those amounts are insufficient additionally with the assets which belong to them in the amount which is a multiple of the contributions made by the to the charter fund of the partnership. A joint stock company is a business partnership established by a contract (charter) and a charter fund (capital). The charter fund is divided into a certain number of shares of equal value among members of a joint stock society. Participants of the society are the shareholders. Shareholders are not be liable for the company’s obligations and they bear the risk of losses relating to the activities of the society within the limits of the value of the shares which belong to them. Joint stock companies may be open or closed. An open joint stock company is one in which the participants may alienate (sell, give away or otherwise assign) the shares which belong to them without consent of any other shareholders. A closed joint stock company is one in which shares are distributed exclusively among the founding parties or some otherwise pre-determined circle of persons. A member of a closed joint stock company may transfer (sell, give, or otherwise assign) the shares but they may be offered only to other members of the society. PUBLIC SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS Three sectors identified are "institutions of democratic local governance," "business" and "civil society". Civil society actors encompass an extremely broad range of civil society organizations including PVOs and NGOs, cooperatives, community based organizations, universities, think tanks and business associations. Business includes all for profit firms, companies, and organizations. Institutions of governance include all formally constituted and publicly mandated public institutions. How can partnerships be build among these actors? The concept "partnership" refers to a wide variety of inter- organizational forums to share and exchange resources and information and to produce outcomes that one partner working alone could not achieve. In its broadest sense partnership may entail informal forums, such as lunches or informal contacts, to formal systems, such as a formal consultation processes or new legal entities. Rather than think of partnership as an outcome, it is useful to think of them as a process: as an action called partnering. This conveys the key active aspect of partnerships; they are not static, but are always changing as goals, abilities and relationships change. Building partnerships emphasizes very different skills from those required in the more familiar hierarchical organizations - skills such as intense listening, perceptive questioning, building trust, integrating multiple perspectives to inform actions, negotiating power and resource differences, discovering common ground, and creating shared visions. Traditional economic development focused upon the roles of overnment and private business, and traditional social development focused upon the role of government and voluntary organizations. Gregory Gleason |
