The Role of Community Participation in Good Governance Promotion as Perceived by the Palestinians in Bethlehem

The current study aimed at identifying the role of community participation in promotion good governance as perceived by the Palestinian citizens in the Governorate of Bethlehem. The study has tackled its subject as a multi-dimensional phenomenon addressed by both theoretical and applied researches. The significance of the recent study rises from being a complement of the previous and available studies, concerning the role of community participation in the promotion of good governance. To achieve this end, the researcher developed a 80-item questionnaire; divided into four sub-scales as follows: the general information of the participants, the second section dealt with the scale of community participation (34) items, while the third section included the scale of good governance (46) items. The tool of the study was conducted on a sample of (383) male and female citizens in the Governorate of Bethlehem selected by random stratified method. Following collection of data, they were statistically processed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). Findings showed a positive correlation between community participation and its role in promoting good governance among Palestinian citizens of Bethlehem governorate. Besides, findings showed that there are no statistical significant differences in the perception of good governance among the citizens due to the following variables: gender, religion, political affiliation, marital status, place of living and academic qualification; while the study did not show any statistically significant differences according to the rest of the variables of the study. The study revealed the presence of perception among the citizens of the importance of community participation and good governance, as well as to the increase of Palestinian women’s awareness and community participation in general and in Bethlehem district in particular. In the light of the current study and its discussion, the researcher recommended: the necessity of promoting the principles of good governance and community participation through seminars and conferences focusing on the contents related to good governance to support the values of good governance among Palestinian citizens in general and the citizens of Bethlehem in particular. And the demand to establish a system of complaints filed against any violation of the rights of individuals. The establishment of projects that promote community participation and ensure the integration of all sectors of community. This is in addition to the need of inserting the values of good governance in the Palestinian educational curriculum.