Recently, there are a lot of arguments about the citizen participation. It is said that citizen participation has become a key element in the modern city and society-particularly in the programs of urban renewal and community action.
It may be, to be sure, a basic aspect of liberal democracy, but many essays on participation seem not to take into consideration several important points, summarized as follows :
1. methods of choosing a participant
2. the representativeness in a participant
3. the stratum of a participant
In other words, essays on participation have no regard for the participant characters.
If they are not solved, we cannot say that citizen participation is a revival of urban democracy ; for participation might be employed as a new logic of controlling citizens.
After all, citizen participation is a double-edged sword.