The capacity of participatory development to both democratically empower and efficiently provide public services is a growing question in research on development practice. The authors of this impressive study evaluate one such attempt at participatory development, conducting an in-depth analysis of the Basic Education Improvement Project (BEIP), implemented by the Government of Kenya in conjunction with the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The authors evaluate the project's participatory aims against theoretical frameworks, most particularly that employed by Jim Ife's Community Development: community-based alternatives in an age of globalization (2002).

A central tension arises when one seeks to define participatory development. Are citizens to be incorporated into decision-making processes for the sake of democratic inclusion or, rather, because citizen participation is a proven method for bringing about the best decisions? The authors claim both, but show how difficulties in implementation compromised these hopes severely. For example, the BEIP needed expertise due to its aim of constructing school infrastructure for disadvantaged communities, and as a result the ‘use of technical expertise, aid assistance and representation negated equal partnerships’ between recipients and providers (p. 94). More theoretically, the authors complain that the participatory element was limited by the ‘emphasis on structural outcomes, as opposed to rights (where the process of participation constitutes the right of self-determination)’ (p. 97). Leadership provided by technocrats rendered citizens' participation ‘tokenistic-coerced or passive-instrumental’ (p. 100). In conclusion, the authors argue that the stress on participation in the BEIP did not empower ordinary Kenyans, but rather led to a form of ‘new centralism’ in which disadvantaged communities were co-opted into the decision-making process only insofar as representatives were chosen from within their midst, thus allowing technocrats to regain dominance over development policy. The result was a return to the centralist bent of previous development attempts, undermining the twin goals of democratic inclusion and efficient provision.

Participatory Development in Kenya presents an exhaustive evaluation of one hoped-for attempt at inclusionary development policy. The sobering finding that genuine citizen participation never occurred throughout the implementation of the BEIP demands further research on whether participatory development can ever be state-led.