Who Participates in Public Participation? The Exclusionary Effects of Inclusionary Efforts

Highlighting public-service actors’ deliberately tokenistic or self-serving efforts, existing literature has shown that public participation often involves the co-optation of sympathetic citizens. In contrast, our study demonstrates participatory advocates may discredit and marginalize critical voices despite their own inclusive, democratic ideals. We analyze entangled legitimacy claims participating citizens “inviting” actors, capturing (a) often-unintended dynamics through which inclusion particular participants legitimizes exclusion others, while illuminating (b) tenacious propensity initiatives to establish “constructive cooperation” as norm for and, subsequently, normalize exclusionary practices.