Summary The rapid growth and acceptance of the concept of participation has been a key feature of international development in the 1990s. Policies to enhance and strengthen participation have long been used in the North as a strategy for addressing issues of poverty and social exclusion. This article reviews the experience of three such programmes in the United States over the last three decades. Then it identifies key lessons and themes from this history which may be relevant and instructive to the current debates on participation and development in the South.