In this edition of SPII Talk, staff members were tasked with writing a piece that resonated with their understanding of the value and principles of public participation. Common to each piece is the emergent take home that our Constitution was built on the premise of an actively engaged citizenship and that participation should be central to the formulation, the implementation and the evaluation of core state functions. This has sometimes worked, but frequently not. The early architects of our democratic state perhaps overlooked the many ingredients demanded for effective and consistently executed participation.