Critical scholars recognize a crisis in the promise of participatory development policy and practice. After a history of more than four decades, the participatory policy paradigm faces increasing concerns as citizens are without control of the policy politics affecting their choices and positions. The participatory approach emerged as a critique of top-down and techno-centric research and development that often ignored community values, local culture and indigenous knowledge. In many situations, however, even heavy investment in participatory projects has failed to poster effective deliberation, to promote the empowerment of communities, and to enhance the equitable allocation of resources. We argue that the Critical Action Research (CAR) approach has the potential to go beyond the dominant understandings advanced in conventional participatory research, which has a long tradition.