Participatory society means the citizens
In the case of a participatory society, the Government assumes that there is more involvement of the citizen and that the citizen becomes more independent. As citizens have to participate more, society as a whole will become better and the public authorities need to be less involved with the citizen. The reason the Netherlands goes towards the participation society is the point that the care society has become prohibitively expensive. It is no longer necessary for the Government to be able to offer all the people who need help: this simply costs too much money. The government is thus trying to impose more and more responsibility and concern among the citizens themselves.