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Around the world, a growing crisis of legitimacy characterises the relationship between citizens and the institutions that affect their lives. In both North and South, citizens speak of mounting disillusionment with government, based on concerns about corruption, lack of responsiveness to the needs of the poor and the absence of a sense of connection with elected representatives and bureaucrats (Commonwealth Foundation 1999; Narayan et al. 2000). Traditional forms of expertise and representation are being questioned (Leach et al., this volume). The rights and responsibilities of corporations and other global actors are being challenged, as global inequalities persist and deepen (Newell, this volume).

In the past, there has been a tendency to respond to the gap that exists between citizens and institutions in one of two ways. On the one hand, attention has been paid to strengthening the processes of participation–that is the ways in which poor people exercise voice through new forms of deliberation, consultation and/or mobilisation designed to inform and to influence larger institutions and policies. On the other hand, growing attention has been paid to strengthening the accountability and responsiveness of these institutions and policies through changes in institutional design and a focus on the enabling structures for good governance. Each perspective has often perceived the other as inadequate, with one warning that consultation without attention to power and politics will lead to ‘voice without influence’, and the other arguing that reform of political institutions without attention to inclusion will only reinforce the status quo.