Enacting empowerment

Despite shortcomings of the empowerment idea in regards to persisting power structures, the US Congress has passed the Empowerment Acts to help improve the socio-economic situation in the poorest regions of the country. In the case study about the Oglala Oyate Woitancan Empowerment Zone, the author discusses whether this community development approach is recommendable in the American Indian context. From 1998 to 2009 the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation held the status of an empowerment zone. The combination of federal dollars, technical assistance and tax incentives were to assist the Oglala Lakota in achieving the kind of sustainable development they want for their communities. During the entire funding period, Sonja John witnessed the program’s progress. She examined the program in the context of empowerment theory and determined whether it improved the living conditions by enhancing capabilities and freedoms and meeting the pre-set program objectives. Although this enacted empowerment program ended zigzagging along the path of red-taped bureaucratic roadblocks, the author argues, the concept bears potential for more than pseudo-empowerment and therapeutic politics if true participation is feasible. The outcomes of this case study have important policy ramifications for other participation-based development programs as well.