Ideology and Reality: Representation and Participation in Local Service Management Evaluating the Case of the Israeli Community Service Centre--Matnas

Correspondence to Dr Uri Yanay Paul Baerwald School of Social Work The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905 Israel Summary Recent trends in social policy and administration encouragecitizen representation. This is based on the ideological assumptionthat representation yields participation and citizen participationultimately secures the interests of the poor and less visiblegroups in the community. In the Israeli network of CommunityService Centres (Matnas) citizen involvement was establishedby selecting or inviting residents to represent the communityalongside other delegates forming a local Board. Research findings indicate that the resulting ‘representativeparticipation’, operated contrary to expectations. Thelay local representatives who were presumed to represent thedisadvantaged of the community reported them as last priority,whereas the professionals representing various organizationson the Mamas Boards claimed to represent them as first priority.Meeting attendance records of the different representatives(a measure of participation) support this finding.