This chapter highlights how the encouragement of citizens' participation may in fact masquerade their rulers' attempt to create consensus for their ‘superior’ political project. It illustrates in ethnographic detail how rulers have symbolically used the public space, along with policies of urban regeneration, to win popular consensus and, thus, legitimise their position. The analysis addresses a central problem in the dynamics of democratic government, as it shows that lack of responsibility and superimposition of a political rhetoric on good governance eventually (...) leads to people's distrust of those in power. The case of Naples significantly points to the fact that, while people may be granted formal membership of society, rulers' pedagogic approaches and self-legitimisation do in fact deny fundamental citizenship rights, such as social and economic rights. (shrink)