The national planning system: from utopia to cooptation

Abstract

In order to analyze this issue, this article seeks to answer the question of whether the National Planning System is a scenario aimed at promoting and strengthening participatory democracy, civic participation and facilitating democratic governance or if, by contrast, it remains a utopia, as when it was included in the Constitution of 1991. It is suggested that, during its first yearsof life, this System provided certain clues of being an efficient mechanism todynamize the relationship between the community and the Government in terms of the construction of public policies and making decisions to improve the living standards of the population; however, its role was minimized during the period from 2002 to 2010, and so it went from an initial moment of growth and splendor, to a moment of cooptation. In order to prove the hypothesis, the authors rely on concepts such as participatory democracy, citizen participation, utopia, cooptation, and democratic governance. These are analyzed and discussed with the opinions by members and former members of the National Planning Council and the District Planning Board, who were interviewed for the purposes of this article.