In its absence an enabling environment for pro-poor growth is unlikely. Political empowerment is a complex process that takes place in the ever-shifting and blurred boundaries of state-society relations. To make this happen, subordinated groups need to be brought into formal political processes both through representative institutions as well as through participatory governance and deliberative democracy when citizens address public problems by reasoning together about how best to solve them. Political parties have a central role in aggregating interests, negotiating compromises and balancing state power (Moore, 2001, Houtzager and Moore, 2003, Mosse, 2004).