Wiktionary
n. Kind of democracy not limiting participation of citizens to voting, but striving to create opportunities for everybody to make meaningful contributions to decision-making.
Wikipedia
Participatory democracy emphasizes the broad participation of constituents in the direction and operation of political systems. Etymological roots of democracy (Greek demos and kratos) imply that the people are in power and thus that all democracies are participatory. However, participatory democracy tends to advocate more involved forms of citizen participation and greater political representation than traditional representative democracy.
Participatory democracy strives to create opportunities for all members of a population to make meaningful contributions to decision-making, and seeks to broaden the range of people who have access to such opportunities. Since so much information must be gathered for the overall decision-making process to succeed, technology may provide important forces leading to the type of empowerment needed for participatory models, especially those technological tools that enable community narratives and correspond to the accretion of knowledge. Effectively increasing the scale of participation, and translating small but effective participation groups into small world networks, are areas currently being studied. Other advocates have emphasised the importance of face to face meetings, warning that an overreliance on technology can be harmful.
Some scholars argue for refocusing the term on community-based activity within the domain of civil society, based on the belief that a strong non-governmental public sphere is a precondition for the emergence of a strong liberal democracy. These scholars tend to stress the value of separation between the realm of civil society and the formal political realm. In 2011, considerable grassroots interest in participatory democracy was generated by the Occupy movement.
Usage examples of "participatory democracy".
Most importantly, he showed us how a participatory democracy can also be a profitable one, for voters and candidates alike.
For reasons of its own, the Terran Empire had decided that participatory democracy was the only tenable form of freedom.
Talk about the classic contributions of Aristotle and Plato in the participatory democracy of ancient Athens in creating the sense of community, just scare them all away.
Neither he nor Aldous Huxley had much faith in the future of participatory democracy.
The Store and their puppets silenced me and kept me from participating in participatory democracy!
Advocate democracy and participatory democracy rather than a republican form of government.
The corns and bugs and other small items Ross sold them help these to gradually gain a measure of control over the explosion and when things settle down, to establish rather precariously something like a participatory democracy where every individual had some say in what the government does, something the other Gurn-sets watch with unease and in one case outright hostility.
Not after you decided to make the CIA into some kind of exercise in participatory democracy and your record system was destroyed.