Fascism was a participatory, grassroots political movement. Participation is as much a problem as it is a solution, as much a goal as a tool. It is a problem when it is disorderly and if it is assumed to be a substitute for democratic representation. It is a solution when it changes conflict into negotiated losses. The recent literature on the effectiveness of foreign aid to developing countries presents an interesting analogy.
Most foreign aid is useless.
The only part that really helps development is that which follows rather than precedes policy change. Similarly, participation seems to work well only when the institutions of participation are in place before the need they address arises and when the institutions are compatible with the need s objectives. These conditions are not easily met. Discussions of participation cannot ignore issues of political power, local power, populism, and representation. They cannot dismiss the ways in which people can be blocked from better lives by the beliefs of their cultures.