Module 4: Power and Consequence

Participation can be inclusive, creative and caring and still have very little influence over the decisions that matter. The final module therefore turns directly to power and consequence.

It brings together two democratic capabilities: Navigating Power and Consequential Participation.

Navigating Power is the freedom and opportunity to understand, navigate and challenge systems of power. This includes recognising how institutions work, identifying who has decision-making authority, understanding formal and informal power relations and developing the capacity to organise, advocate and demand accountability.

Consequential Participation is the freedom and opportunity for participation to have tangible and meaningful influence. Having a voice is not enough if there is no pathway between what participants say and what institutions, organisations or communities subsequently do.

This module asks participants to examine the full chain between participation and change:

• Who has power?

• Where are decisions made?

• What can participants influence?

• Who is responsible for acting?

• How will participants know what happened?

• What happens if nothing changes?

Participants consider practical mechanisms such as direct relationships with decision-makers, transparent mandates, feedback loops, accountability mechanisms and ways of tracking proposals or commitments over time.

The module also encourages a critical distinction between what can be changed through the design of a participatory process and what depends on wider institutional, economic or political conditions.

The aim is to move from participation as an opportunity to express opinions towards participation as a means of exercising democratic agency and producing meaningful change.