Reference no: EM132196933

Question: Entrepreneurship is a key component of economic development. In order to promote this entrepreneurial capacity in rural areas there must be active citizen participation to successfully implement the economic development process. Trust between the citizens and those elected to lead them is one of the key factors in this implementation. The article compares two similar rural counties in Texas, one with political distrust and the one without any trust issues. In the beginning development stages both counties seem to be on the right track, but that initial distrust of one eventually lead to an unsuccessful implementation of the program. But as the article indicated, trust is not enough to complete the process and that the need of citizen participation will contribute to the success of the program. Unfortunately, if the initial trust is absent then there will be a direct impact on citizens willing to participate in the latter stages of the program.

Conclusion

I agree with the overall consensus of this article. The simple idea that community participation is dependent upon initial trust. As I read in the article, the city of Roy had distrust in their elected officials from the very beginning. It's hard to be active in projects that you don't believe will benefit you or your community in the end. I would like to have heard some feedback from the community of Roy on how the process could have been improved. Maybe there was something the economic development team could have done to reassure the community that they could trust the process.

Questions to consider

Do you believe that any other outside factors may have played a part of Roy's implementation failure compared to Green Tree?

How would you have intervened in the county of Roy to help bridge the gap of distrust between the officials and the citizens?