Ideology and reality: Representation and participation in local service management evaluating the case of the israeli community service centre-matnas

Recent trends in social policy and administration encourage citizen representation. This is based on the ideological assumption that representation yields participation and citizen participation ultimately secures the interests of the poor and less visible groups in the community. In the Israeli network of Community Service Centres (Matnas) citizen involvement was established by selecting or inviting residents to represent the community alongside other delegates forming a local Board.Research findings indicate that the resulting 'representative participation', operated contrary to expectations. The lay local representatives who were presumed to represent the disadvantaged of the community reported them as last priority, whereas the professionals representing various organizations on the Mamas Boards claimed to represent them as first priority. Meeting attendance records of the different representatives (a measure of participation) support this finding.