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Democratic Innovation and Participatory Democracy in the Alpine Area

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Democratic Innovation and Participatory Democracy in the Alpine Area DEMOCRATIC INNOVATION AND PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY IN THE ALPINE AREA COMPARATIVE REPORT Co-financed by: IMPRESSUM Eurac Research Drususallee 1, 39100 Bozen/Italien Project Partners Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano/Italia • Development Agency GAL Genovese T +39 0471 055 055 (Italy, Lead Partner) F +39 0471 055 099 • CIPRA International Lab GmbH (Austria) • Youth Information Centre Vorarlberg aha – Tipps & Infos für junge Leute (Austria) Research Team: • Eurac Research (Italy) Dr. Martina Trettel, Dr. Alice Valdesalici, • Alpine Network of Protected Areas (France) Dott.ssa Elisabeth Alber, MA Annika Kress, • Bauges Massif Regional Park (France) Dott.ssa Alice Meier, Mag. Vera Ohnewein, • Municipality of Idrija (Slovenia) Mag. Mag. Greta Klotz • Alpine Town of the Year Association (Germany) In Collaboration with: This project is co-financed by the European BA Julia Bodner, BA Janja Hiti, MSc/MA Matevž Regional Development Fund through the Straus, Dr. Dominik Cremer-Schulte, Interreg Alpine Space programme. Dott.ssa Letizia Arneodo, Julie Higel, Dr. Annalisa Cevasco, Dott.ssa Giorgia Merletto, Mag. Barbara Funding Österle, M.Sc. Michaela Hogenboom, Total eligible costs: 1.092.748 EUR Mag. Claire Simon – who assisted the research ERDF grant: 928.836 EUR team in collecting and translating research Duration materials, contacting the stakeholders, Project start date: 01/11/2016 participating in the elaboration of the Project end date: 28/02/2019 questionnaires and interview guidelines as well as in the conduction of interviews. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Preface and Acknowledgments 4 Introduction 5 Part I - The Legal Framework of Participatory Democracy in the States and Regions of the Alpine Area 7 Infographic 1 8 1.1 Methodology 9 1.2 AUSTRIA 10 1.3 FRANCE 13 1.4 GERMANY 15 1.5 ITALY 19 1.6 LIECHTENSTEIN 22 1.7 SWITZERLAND 23 1.8 SLOVENIA 26 Part II - Participatory Democracy in Municipal Practice in the Alpine Space 30 Infographic 2 32 2.1 Methodology 33 2.2 The Municipal Level: Participation for, of and by the Citizens 36 2.3 The Municipality as a Barrier to or Supporter of Participatory Practices 36 2.4 Data Analysis 39 2.4.1 General statements on the Objectives of Participatory Processes 39 2.4.2 Statements on the Beginnings of Citizen Participation 43 2.4.3 Statements on the Phase Preceding the Actual Citizen Participation 45 2.4.4 Statements on Initial Information and Contact with Citizens 50 2.4.5 Statements on the Process Procedures and Implementation of the Results 50 2.4.6 Statements on the Participants 52 2.4.7 Statements on the Role of Politics and Administration 52 2.5 Youth Participation 54 2.5.1 Mobilisation and Reaching Youth 55 2.5.2 Identifying Topics and Designing Processes 55 2.5.3 Continuity and Sustainability 57 2.6 Further Information and List of References 58 2.7 Fact Sheets on Innovative Practices of Participatory Democracy Implemented in the Alpine Space 62 Conclusion 69 Appendix – Table of Laws 71 2–3 Preface and Acknowledgments This comparative report is one of the main outputs of the Alpine Space Project “Governance and Youth in the Alps” (GaYA), which is currently being implemented by eight partners representing the Alpine territory. It consists of a legal and empirical analysis of democratic innovation within the Alpine Region and represents the result of several months of research, coordinated and directed by the Institute for Comparative Federalism of Eurac Research. The definition of Alpine area adopted in this report follows that of the European macro-regional strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP).1 It includes the seven states Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland and forty-eight of their subnational constituent entities.2 The GaYA project aims at increasing the quality of democracy in the Alpine area by enhancing the capacity of decision and policy-makers to involve youth as future leaders in democratic systems. GaYA is structured in several activities to be realized within a two-year time frame (2016-2018). Its final objective is to raise awareness and to spread knowledge with regard to the adoption of innovative methods and instruments of democratic participation in deci- sion-making processes among political actors, civil servants and young adults. This report provides a portrait of the legal framework of democratic innovation in the Alpine States and Regions and maps empirical trends by collecting good examples and innovative practices and procedures of participatory democracy implemented in the Alpine Region. However, the reader should be aware that the present research has no claim to exhaustiveness, being the latter conditioned by the selected methodology. The methodological approach employed in both the legal and the empirical part of the analysis is defined in each section respectively. The major underpinning of this comparative research is the belief that the implementation of innovative forms of governance has great potential in terms of more sustainable and legitimate decision-making. The report pinpoints important features of participatory democracy such as its flexibility and adaptability to diverse political contexts and necessities. The study intends to provide a useful overview on the legal background and insights in practical tools of democratic innovation to local and regional policy- and decision makers in the Alpine territory. Furthermore, the report aims at contributing to the exchange and the exportability of good practices and expertise through Alpine Municipali- ties, Regions and States. The structure and the underlying concept of this study constitute the result of the collective efforts of all project partners. However, the responsibility for the scientific research and for the results’ interpretation lies with the authors and the scientific collaborators mentioned hereafter. 3 We would like to thank our colleagues at Eurac Research for their intense commitment to this report, all project partners and observers, interviewees as well as all those who contribut- ed to the collection of the material, the elaboration of the questionnaire and interview guideline as well as the conduc- tion of interviews. Greta Klotz and Lucia Radici Project Managers Institute for Comparative Federalism, Eurac Research June 2017 1 See: http://www.alpine-space.eu/about/eu-regional-policy/macroregional-strategies/what-is-eusalp- (accessed at 29.05.2017, as all further hyperlinks cited in this report). 2 These are all nine Austrian Länder; the three French Regions Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Rhône Alpes; the two German Länder Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria; the Italian Autonomous Provinces of Bolzano-Bozen/South Tyrol and Trento, the Autonomous Regions Friuli Venezia Giulia and Valle d’Aosta as well as the Regions Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto; and all the 26 Swiss cantons. 3 The first part of this comparative report (The Legal Framework of Participatory Democracy in the States and Regions of the Alpine Area) was written by Martina Trettel and Alice Valdesalici, the second part (Participatory Democracy in Municipal Practice in the Alpine Space) by Elisabeth Alber and Annika Kress. The six factsheets were elaborated by Alice Meier. The introduction and conclusion were written by Martina Trettel, Greta Klotz and Alice Meier. Introduction Representative democracy has been experiencing, in recent years, a severe crisis in relation to all levels of gov- ernment: local, provincial, regional, national and supranational. The most striking evidence of this crisis is the low turnout at the polls and the widespread disinterest in issues linked to society and citizenship, particularly among young people along with their perception of democracy and of the political class. Although it is recognised that the instrument of repre- sentative democracy is still the method that allows modern systems to be governed democratically, a new phenomenon is slowly taking hold: that of participatory democracy. In fact, what all crisis situations, albeit determined by different causes, have in common is the ability to solicit new responses to the changing needs of the concerned community. Thus, institutions of representative democracy are attempting to offer a concrete and positive response to the current crisis by introducing new forms of citizens’ involvement in decisions relating to the public sphere. Participatory democracy – in reference also to those democratic experiences known and developed in ancient Greece – should be intended as the synthesis of practices, devices and procedures that create citizens’ means of effective involvement in decision-making processes of public administrations. The purpose is to enhance the legitimacy of political decisions, to improve the quality of public decisions, and, finally, to increase their level of effectiveness. The present comparative study aims at mapping participatory democracy in the Alpine Region from the twofold institutional and empirical perspective. The structure of this report reflects the latter purpose. The first part of the report intends to offer a legal overview of all those sources of law – national and regional – that regulate or underpin manifesta- tions of participatory democracy. The second part of the study collects good practices of democratic innovation concretely tested in the Alpine Space, particularly at local level. By comparatively analysing concrete practices, procedures and their underlying rationales, the second part of the report offers an empirical analysis of participatory
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