Transparencia y democracia participativa local en Colombia.

Participatory democracy, used properly, can be an ideal tool to improve the transparency levels of local administrations. In this paper it is analyzed the colombian regulation and experience with the town meeting and the referéndum as participatory mechanisms. The intention is to analyze its possible utility to contribute to a bigger transparency of the local government action and, because of that, to better relations between the local rulers and their citizens. The conclussion achieved is that both participatory mechanisms are an important help to the local governance improvement, as well as to the protection of the local interests and the rights of the municipality neighbours.