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Titre Géographie, démocratie, participation : explication d'une distance, arguments pour un rapprochement / Geography, democracy and participation : explications of the gap between them and arguments fora rapprochement
Auteur Michel Bussi
Mir@bel Revue Géocarrefour
Numéro volume 76, no 3, 2001 Les territoires de la participation
Page 265-272
Résumé anglais The question of participation refers to that of the direct power invested in individual and collective actors. In this sense, it is inseperable from the debate on democracy which from a normative standpoint implies the participation of the population and from a descriptive viewpoint involves almost systematically a representative system which relegates citizens to a basic role of control and possible sanction of their elected representatives. Analysis of the main geography textbooks and dictionnaries shows that the question of participation, just as that of democracy, is never or only rarely evoked. This neglect contrasts with the importance given to this question in other disciplines close to geography (political science, sociology, history) and the related abundant literature on the subject. Having demonstrated the lack of geographical research on questions of democracy, six factors explaining this situation are set out as well as five arguments for a rapprochement between the two. This article, therefore, concerns essentially the links between democracy, geography and politics. It deals only indirectly with questions of planning and development. However, it is considered that the transition from the planned development of a territory to development determined by local participation, a trend demanded or applied throughout the world (as expressed in the conclusion) is the reflexion of a more general evolution of political decision-making methods, of which the links with geography are considered here.
Source : Éditeur (via Persée)
Article en ligne http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/geoca_1627-4873_2001_num_76_3_2564