- What is participation?
- Political participation
- Participatory democracy
- Social or citizen participation
- Participation in finance
- Class participation
We explain what participation is in the political, social, financial and class fields. Also, what is participatory democracy?
What is participation?
By the word participation we can refer to many different things in many different areas. Its origin dates back to the Latin term participatio, derived from the verb I will participate, in turn composed of the voices pars ("Part") and capere ("Take" or "grab"). For this reason, in its current meanings, this word is always related to the fact of being part of a group, joining a group or take part in something.
In fact, if we search for the word take part In the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, we will notice how its first four meanings refer to similar situations: an individual joins a community, or is assigned a portion of a heritage collective. That is why when speaking of participation, we generally refer to social, economic and political issues, in which the relationship between the individual and the community appears.
Political participation
Political participation is the area in which the relationship between the individual and the collective is most evident: it is the exercise of politics by the general public, that is, the set of actions that the people can carry out directly or indirectly to influence the political decisions made by their representatives, and thus take part in important decisions for their own welfare.
Political participation is fundamental to the health of any health system. government, and is put into practice through different conventional mechanisms, the main of which is the suffrage: elections, referendums and / or plebiscites through which the population exercises his opinion on issues of political representation and administrative decisions.
There are, however, other forms of political participation, such as city councils or popular initiative, in which the citizenry assumes the reins of political leadership much more directly and openly.
Participatory democracy
It makes sense to address, having said the above, participatory democracy, which consists of a more inclusive and direct democratic model than democracy traditional representative, in which the people elect those who will govern in their name.
In participatory democracy (as its name reflects) the margins of political participation of the collective are much greater, although without reaching the standards of direct democracy, in which it is the citizens themselves, without the need for intermediaries, who exercise the leadership. politics.
Thus, in a participatory democracy, the aim is to create an institutional model closer to the people, in which community supervision and the different mechanisms of popular consultation force politics to focus on the real problems of the people, and thus not disconnect from the real basic needs.
Social or citizen participation
When we speak of social participation or citizen participation, on the other hand, we refer to the set of social initiatives in which the population can take part, without the need for a political career and without the intermediation of the institutions of the Condition, or at least not directly.
It is a more or less broad concept, in which political parties, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), social movements and even local groups, such as neighborhood associations or neighborhood development societies. In these spaces, the community to be able to actively defend their interests both against private actors and against the State itself.
Participation in finance
In the financial and economic sphere, we speak of participation to refer to a form of investment in which funds are incorporated into the capital of the business, personally and without thereby acquiring obligations regarding personal assets (in the event of debts or bankruptcy). This form of investment is different from buying Actions.
On the other hand, this term is also used to refer to the amount of money that each participant grants to an investment fund, hoping to see their money multiplied in the future.
Class participation
Class participation is one of the aspects of evaluation school that are usually left to the judgment of the teacher, that is, they depend on their reading of the attitude of the student in the framework of the class. In this, both the presence (obviously) and the willingness to actively take part in the learning, to do the activities and, in general, to join the group that makes up the classroom.
Class participation can be evaluated with different percentages and scores within the total evaluation of the subject, depending mainly on whether it is more practical or theoretical subjects.