When is Development More Democratic?

If people are to be empowered by development processes, to be active participants rather than passive recipients, then development must become more democratic. However, the meaning of ‘more demo-cratic’ is not exhausted by the introduction of democratic institutions; it also entails that political activity functions more democratically. In this article, ‘democratic functioning’ is defined in terms of people's access to political activity, which has greater influence over decision‐making that is more effective in preserving or enhancing valuable capabilities. Thus development can be democratically dysfunctional in three ways: exclusion from political activity, lack of influence by political activity over decision‐making, and lack of effect on capability shortfalls within the community. The debate on participatory development points to dysfunctionalities of all three kinds, even within participatory development. Therefore, rather than merely calling for development to be more participatory, we ought to call for it to be more democratic.