A model developed by Sherry Arnstein, the Ladder of Participation was developed in the late 1960s. Her eight rungs range from Manipulation to Citizen Control.


"The bottom rungs of the ladder are (1) Manipulation and (2) Therapy. These two rungs describe levels of "non-participation" that have been contrived by some to substitute for genuine participation. Their real objective is not to enable people to participate in planning or conducting programs, but to enable powerholders to 'educate' or 'cure' the participants. Rungs 3 and 4 progress to levels of 'tokenism' that allow the have-nots to hear and to have a voice: (3) Informing and (4) Consultation. When they are proffered by powerholders as the total extent of participation, citizens may indeed hear and be heard. But under these conditions they lack the power to insure that their views will be heeded by the powerful. When participation is restricted to these levels, there is no follow-through, no 'muscle,' hence no assurance of changing the status quo. Rung (5) Placation is simply a higher level tokenism because the ground rules allow have-nots to advise, but retain for the powerholders the continued right to decide.

Further up the ladder are levels of citizen power with increasing degrees of decision-making clout. Citizens can enter into a (6) Partnership that enables them to negotiate and engage in trade-offs with traditional power holders. At the topmost rungs, (7) Delegated Power and (8) Citizen Control, have-not citizens obtain the majority of decision-making seats, or full managerial power." [1]

YOUTH

The Ladder of Participation is a model for thinking about youth participation developed by Roger Hart. The bottom three rungs describe youth involvement that is not true participation whereas the top five rungs describe true participation. [2]


Rung 8: Young people and adults share decision-making.
Rung 7: Young people lead and initiate action.
Rung 6: Adult-initiated, shared decisions with young people.
Rung 5: Young people consulted and informed.
Rung 4: Young people assigned and informed.
Rung 3: Young people tokenised.
Rung 2: Young people are decoration.
Rung 1: Young people are manipulated.

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[1] A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Sherry R Arnstein

[2] The Free Child Project - Hart's Ladder of Young People's Participation.