Description:
Breaks new ground in the study of participatory governance by combining qualitative and quantitative research methods. Donaghy uses data from Brazil's 5,564 municipalities and fieldwork from five Brazilian cities to test whether participatory municipal housing councils are associated with an increase in adoption of social housing programs to benefit the poor.
Review Quotes:
"This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of how participatory governance can produce improvements in social well-being and public goods allocations. Donaghy's work is a welcome addition to a growing body of work on citizen participation and participatory democracy, because it is the first book that combines large-N and case study analyses to demonstrate that these new democratic institutions generate public policies that have beneficial impacts on the lives of poor citizens."
--Brian Wampler, Boise State University
"This is an empirically rich and innovative "mixed-method" study of participatory institutions in Brazil. Donaghy does more than tell us that civic participation makes for good social policy. She presents a nuanced analysis of why that is so, breaking with commonly accepted hypotheses such as that a preexisting history of civil society mobilization determines the success of government sponsored efforts to include citizens in decision making."
--Rebecca Abers, University of Brasília