“A Ladder of Citizen Participation”

Sherry Arnstein (1930-1997), a government official charged with citizen participation in the US federal Model Cities Program in the late 1960s and early 1970s uses the metaphor of a ladder to describe levels of citizens’ participation in urban programs and development decisions that affect their lives in this classic 1968 article from the Journal of the American Institute of Planners. At the lowest level of Arnstein’s ladder are three forms of nonparticipation: manipulation and therapy in which government contrives phony forms of participation, which are really aimed at getting citizens to accept a predetermined course of action. Two legitimate, but low, rungs of Arnstein’s ladder are informing and consultation. Arnstein considers informing citizens of the facts about a government program and of their rights, responsibilities, and options is a good first step. Consultation – getting citizens’ opinions – is even better, if the process is honest and citizens’ opinions are really considered. Higher up the ladder is placation – in which government gives in to a few citizen demands. The highest rungs on Arnstein’s ladder are: partnership, three rungs from the top; delegated power, one rung below the top; and citizen control at the very top of the ladder. Arnstein sees citizen control of local programs that affect them as an ideal. Programs have given citizens complete control of urban programs that affect them have been rare and the results mixed, but including citizens in decisions that impact them, delegation of some responsibilities and power to neighborhood groups, and public-private partnerships are now common.