Participatory Governance: Hope or Danger for Democracy? A Case Study of Local Agenda 21

Abstract

Participatory governance is a concept that is receiving increasing prominence. However, more empirical research is needed to clarify whether participatory governance is beneficial or detrimental to democracy. The local level is a dynamic field for participatory experiments and, therefore, particularly rewarding for researchers interested in scrutinizing the impacts of participatory governance empirically. In this article, Local Agenda 21 serves as an example to discuss both hypotheses. The study, conducted predominantly in Germany, shows that neither the supporters nor the sceptics of participatory governance are completely right. The findings about Local Agenda 21 demonstrate that this form of participatory governance can improve civic skills and social capital, but has little impact on input-legitimacy and is barely effective, i.e. reaches the goal of enforcing sustainable development only to a limited degree.

Las Políticas culturales de proximidad en el Paradigma de la ciudad creativa: el caso del programa de centros cívicos en la ciudad de Barcelona

“…Los cambios fueron validados a partir de un nuevo discurso sobre la ciudad y sobre la relación entre sociedad civil y gobierno local, en el que la participación y la cultura aparecen como componentes centrales. En la nueva estrategia emprendedora, el énfasis en la participación se instala como un elemento desproblematizador de las tensiones entre governance y democracia (Swyngedouw, 2005;Blakeley, 2005;Geissel, 2009), algo que obliga a examinar críticamente esta relación.…”

Institutionalization of Sustainable Development in Decision-Making and Everyday Life Practices: A Critical View on the Finnish Case

“…Moreover, strategies or plans for sustainable development have not created practices where Finnish society would be developed from a completely new point of view or starting point [13,16]. Ideas or practices of sustainable development have not been able to challenge development policies or to change the norms, rules and logics guiding them.…”

“…The building blocks of modern society-economic and societal issues-are emphasized, while the environmental perspective is left aside in decision-making and future planning. The aims and ideas of sustainable development have not been able to change what is thought of as being the foundation of "responsible decision-making" or "the logic of appropriateness", which responsible decision-makers follow in concrete policymaking situations [16,23]. Even though legislation and sustainable development strategies both at national and local levels have tried to raise or establish the viewpoint of sustainable development as being at the foundation of decision-making in various policy fields, the decision-maker cannot ignore rules emphasizing the economic preconditions and consequences of decisions.…”

“…Local sustainable development processes implemented through the Rio Process show that it is difficult to establish and maintain a change directed towards the future when the goal is to renew society as a whole [13,16,20]. Processes have emphasized consensus too much and avoided dealing with conflicts and contradictions.…”

“…Agenda 21 emphasizes in particular the opportunities of citizens and those with a weak social status, such as women and aboriginal peoples, to participate locally in the task of defining what sustainable development means, as well as to participate in the realization of sustainable development as they define it. In Agenda 21, the responsibility of different parties to ensure and arrange participation opportunities is assigned to local and national governments [15,16].…”