Combined Bureau for Social Development (Europe)
This European site has a good toolkit on participation and its importance in democracy.
Participation means the ability of people to play an active part in society and get the benefits of doing so, both social and economic. The benefits are both formal and informal such as friendship and family networks as well as formally in access to public service and employment.
The strategy for promoting participation developed in the course of the project looks at participation from 4 different perspectives including participation in public decision-making.
www.cebsd.org/participation.htm