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Don't start a PhD thesis on this! Some folks at the World Bank have already done it for you! You can check out this exhaustive review of the use of participation in development projects: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/11859

Or, read a short summary of this work at: https://wbi.worldbank.org/wbi/devoutreach/article/1073/participatory-development-reconsidered

Conclusions point to many positive and negative aspects of participatory techniques. Conditions where participation (localizing) works best include:

• Mechanisms for downward accountability have been well thought out and have teeth.
• There is a strong center capable of setting eligibility criteria, building local capacity, as needed, and effectively monitoring local resource allocation decisions.
• Projects emerge from local experimentation and innovation rather than best practice implants.
• Efforts are made to activate civic society by creating incentives, such as audits and performance-based rewards, or by building the community’s capacity to observe and sanction through the provision of information or training, particularly where inequities are entrenched.