Over the past 50 years the consultation industry has emerged as a response to the limitations of representative democracy. But consultation has its dark sides. Often the consultation industry seeks to engage with civil society to improve its delivery of products and services, but civil society lives in hope that the consultation will change how the system is operating. This mismatch can lead to frustration and disillusionment.

A worse scenario is where consultation is weaponised, used as a process to entrench power relationships, and is designed to disempower communities and individuals.

Read the discussion about the dark sides of the consultation industry and how civil society can respond to this situation.

Image by By Kaihsu Tai - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38103423>