Berry, Portney, and Thomson's (1993) study of citizen participation at the city level
indicates that it is possible to garner significant and representative participation, but this
may only be possible with city-wide commitment to strong democracy. This would involve
the decentralization of power to the citizen participation structures (including discretionary
funding), incentives for structural change in city administrations, and clearly-defined,
non-partisan, neighborhood associations that recruit citizens at the local level.
Such efforts may reduce the informality and bias of current, piecemeal efforts in mobilizing
and equitably representing communities.