People’s Participation and Public Service Delivery:A Review of Issues and Determinants

People’s participation as a complementary development instrument carries enormous significance for public service delivery. Over time, it has evolved with different formsand created various democratic spaces for effective planning and monitoring at the grass-ischolar_main level. The present study, reviewing the literature, attempts to analyse evolving concepts and implications of participation in the development process, discusses the role of invited and popular space, identifies determining factors of participation and examines the impact of participation on public service delivery. The study establishes that participation remains crucial for efficient and transparent service delivery and is being increasingly accepted as a development paradigm.