Message-ID: <Pine.SV4.3.91.960607114840.28423E-100000@purple> Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 12:03:03 -0400 From: Tom Abeles <mailto:tabeles@TMN.COM> Subject: Re: ARE STAKEHOLDERS/COMMUNITIES ALWAYS RIGHT To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Riaz Khan's descrilption of concnerns about including stakeholders is an excellent issue which has to do with all organizations and not just in developing countries. To ignore this is to delude one's self.Even in the United States, Jefferson had very strong reservations about including all parties in the decison process. Please remember that the US is a republic and not a democracy by design- history is worthy of study in this matter and much is to be said about understanding the history of organizations and the various parties
"including" stakeholders" is just the most recent "development model" which may not be appropriate across the board at the same time. I often wonder what responsibility development consultants have and what liabilities they may assume if their interventions go awry?
Here in the US, again, the idea of stakeholder praticipation is relatively new- in a country which has a claimed history of such deomcratic particpation.Corporations are just at the edge of some of this; organizations and associations are further behind, political organizations-hmmmm, no comment. And this is with an electorate which is supposedly educated, informed and responsive/responsible. Lazare has written an excellent book called The frozen republic, abut the us and the problems with less than one person one vote and Kozol's Amazing Grace brings tears to ones eyes when we see that a land of plenty has deliberately created poverty, starvation, discrimination and very other ism that was described in the the previous posting
Even "do as I say and not as I do" may not be the answer and the anwer may change once a first step to implementation is attempted. In a dynamic and changing world we have to get rid of prescriptions and models and one size fits all. What we need is a solvent that will loosen the gears between our ears and get us to think and risk and see and to have patience-we did not get into this "mess" over night and it will take a long time to turn this big ship around- maybe in someone's future life time- hard when grant monies require demonstrable results.
Which brings up the final point. Most in developoing countries did not get in this predicament by themselves- helping them to try to right the boat without substative changes within our own world-Ah but then this is not utopia
tom abeles mailto:tabeles@tmn.com