Having an inter- and transdisciplinary nature, participation, depending on its application context, may imply various theories, e.g.:

• public participation: state theories that may help understand different designs of public participation, like enlightened autocracy; socialist popular democracy; rule of law; deliberative democracy; post-modern relational rationality; self-administration (Winter, 2014).
• political participation: rational actor theories (Uhlaner, 1986), resource and social learning theories (McAllister & Makkai, 1992) .
• participation in urban planning: rational-comprehensive planning theory, advocacy planning theory, incrementalist planning theory, communicative planning theory (planning as consensus seeking, planning as management of conflicts) (Mäntysalo, 2005).

Sources:

Winter, G. (2014). Theoretical Foundations of Public Participation in Administrative Decision-Making. In Environmental Democracy and Law. Europa Law Publishing. McAllister, I., & Makkai, T. (1992). Resource and Social Learning Theories of Political Participation: Ethnic Patterns in Australia. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue Canadienne de Science Politique, 25(2), 269–293. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000842390000398X Uhlaner, C. J. (1986). Political Participation, Rational Actors, and Rationality: A New Approach. Political Psychology, 7(3), 551–573. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791256 Mäntysalo, R. (2005). Approaches to Participation in Urban Planning Theories. 23–38.