Theo Schiller (ed.)

Local Direct Democracy in Europe

Direct Democracy in Modern Europe

editors:

Theo Schiller

Bruno Kaufmann

Wilfried Marxer

Zoltán Tibor Pállinger

The interdisciplinary series will present studies on direct democracy in theory and

empirical research in modern Europe on the local, national, and European level.

Subjects will include country reports, legal aspects, special referendums, comparative

studies, and analyses of policy impacts and the contribution of direct democracy to

the development of democratic systems.

Theo Schiller (ed.)

Local Direct

Democracy

in Europe

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1st Edition 2011

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ISBN 978-3-531-18250-6

Contents 5

Contents

Preface 7

Local Direct Democracy in Europe – a comparative overview 9

Theo Schiller

I. Emerging Patterns

The uneasy balance between participation and representation: local direct democracy

in the Czech Republic 33

Michael L. Smith

Local direct democracy in Germany – varieties in a federal state 54

Theo Schiller

The institutionalisation of the referendum in the Italian political system: from the

national to regional and local levels 75

PierVincenzo Uleri

Direct democracy in local politics in Norway 113

Aimée Lind Adamiak

Twenty years of Polish direct democracy at the local level 126

Andrzej K. Piasecki

Second-order direct democracy in Switzerland: How sub-national experiences differ

from national ballots 138

Michael Buetzer

Direct Democracy at the local level: a comparison of eight municipalities from four

countries around Lake Constance (Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland) 157

Wilfried Marxer/Zoltán Tibor Pállinger

II. Small Beginnings

Direct democracy in Britain: citizens’ empowerment or political cosmetics? 173

Michèle Breuillard

6 Contents

Towards a law on local direct democracy in Bulgaria 184

Iva Taralezhkova

Denmark – fragments of local direct democracy 193

Palle Svensson

Local popular votes in Finland – procedures and experiences 202

Rolf Büchi

Local referendums in France: a disappointing experience 226

Stéphane Guérard

Slovakia – restricted direct democracy in local politics 237

Erik Láštic

Direct democracy in Slovenia – poor practice at the local level 245

Bernard Nežmah

Sweden: Better late than never. Towards a stronger initiative right in local politics 254

Bruno Kaufmann

Democratic participation at the local level in post-communist states: Estonia, Latvia,

Lithuania 268

Jüri Ruus

List of Authors 291

Preface 7

Preface

Direct democracy has attracted growing interest over the last two decades, in practice as

well as in academic writing, yet mainly with a focus on the national level of government

and much less on the regional and local level of politics. Since citizens have the closest

relationship to their everyday environment of local politics it should be rewarding to take a

closer look at the opportunities of participating in direct democracy at this level of political

life. Therefore, we chose the topic „Direct Democracy in Local Politics in European Coun-

tries“ for a conference which I organised in April 2007 at the Institute of Political Science,

Philipps University Marburg, Germany, in collaboration with the Initiative and Referendum

Institute Europe (IRIE) and the Liechtenstein Institute. I am very grateful to the speakers

from all parts of Europe for participating in this conference and elaborating their papers

into very informative articles for this publication, including updates on recent develop-

ments. I also appreciate the patience of all contributors for a rather time-consuming process

of editing and publishing this book.

This international conference had been made possible by generous financial assistance

from Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung, Cologne, which we gratefully acknowledge. In addition, I

want to thank Philipps University Marburg and the Ursula-Kuhlmann-Fonds for valuable

support.

For organising this meeting we enjoyed the invaluable help of many persons, most nota-

bly of Volker Mittendorf, Anna Capretti, Zoe Felder, Philine Sturzenbecher, Benjamin

Ewert and Christine Timmermann.

I am also very grateful that the original versions of most papers have received English–

language editing by Paul Carline, Edinburgh, who attended the conference and demonstrat-

ed his expertise in the subject of direct democracy.

My thanks also go to Frank Schindler,VS Verlag fuer Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden

(Germany), for his continuous support of this English language series „Direct Democracy

in Modern Europe“.

Hopefully this publication will contribute to disseminate knowledge and cooperation on

local direct democracy in Europe and that citizens participating in direct democracy can

help to qualify local democracy at large in European countries.

Marburg (Germany), October 2010 Theo Schiller

Local Direct Democracy in Europe – a comparative overview 9

Local Direct Democracy in Europe – a comparative overview

Theo Schiller

Direct democracy in Europe has developed a growing interest in recent years. This refers to

all levels of governmental systems, the national level, the regional states in federal systems

and the level of local politics. Since 2009, the Lisbon Treaty even provides the European

Citizens’ Initiative as an instrument of direct democracy for the level of European Union

politics, and many referendums on accession to the European Union and on treaty amend-

ments referred to the European politics level (Szczerbiak 2005; Pichler 2009; Pichler/Kauf-

mann 2010).

There are many reasons to take a closer look at direct democracy in local politics. Since

states regularly have a local level of administration and often self-government, local politics

and policies represent an important part of democratic systems with competences very close

to the daily lives of citizens. So, communities and municipalities provide an interesting

field of civic participation and of entering political life with easier access than regional or

national state politics. This also supports systems of democracy at large and surely is regar-

ded almost everywhere as an indispensable basis of democracy. These qualities can develop

as far as the state is granting local self-government with meaningful jurisdictions and not

only administrative tasks under central control. By ‚local politics‘ we do refer broadly to

several forms, with municipalities at the core, but in some states differentiated in districts,

wards etc., and also with counties, provinces or the like as a higher level, which may not all

possess explicit rights of self-government. For the sake of brevity with ‚local politics‘ we

normally mean the level of municipalities.

Dealing with local politics and local democracy also gained relevance since, during the

last two or three decades, many reforms of local governance have been discussed and prac-

ticed. These included on the one hand expanding infrastructure and welfare services of

municipalities and how they can be realized more efficiently, e. g. by professionalising or

privatising services. This has been paralleled by an increase of the size of municipal units

which often led to conflicts about municipal mergers. On the other hand, many forms of

extending political participation and of activating civil society groups have been explored.

The broader concepts of participation sometimes also included increased influence of citi-

zens by way of direct elections of mayors, and of direct democracy in the form of initiatives

and referendums. Obviously, direct democracy has been recognised as valuable for individ-

ual citizens’ participation and as a tool for supporting local democracy in general. Thus,

time seemed to be right to collect a broader and comparative picture of these recent devel-

opments of local direct democracy in European countries.

Section 1 starts with some general theoretical considerations on local direct democracy,

gives an overview on relevant literature for the subject, and explains how the country re-

ports in this book have been selected and organised. Section 2 will inform on the historical

and political background of main developments of local direct democracy in the respective

countries. Section 3 describes the basic forms of initiative and referendum procedures

T. Schiller (ed.), Local Direct Democracy in Europe, DOI 10.1007/978-3-531-92898-2_1,

10 Theo Schiller

available and compares regulations and country profiles. Practical usage of the instruments

of direct democracy and important factors to explain variations are discussed in section 4.

Finally, section 5 will draw some conclusions from comparing these patterns and look at

impacts of local initiatives and referendums on structures and qualities of local democracy

in general.

1 General considerations and structure of the book

In general, direct democracy may be defined as a procedure which allows citizens to partic-

ipate directly in decision-making on policy issues in a ballot vote on propositions initiated

by citizens or by a governmental authority (variations and details see sec. 3).

During these last decades, in the general debate on direct democracy many pro and con

arguments have been brought forward (e.g. Budge 1996; Budge 2006; Leduc 2003; Setälä/

Schiller 2009). As one basic point stands out that by initiative and referendum citizens can

participate in discussing and deciding on specific issues and not only on parties and candi-

dates, and that thereby the democratic principle of political equality may be strengthened.

Since many issues are not discussed in general elections citizens need other channels to

articulate policy preferences. Opportunities to participate will increase access and motiva-

tion to information and expand the competence of citizens. Thus, these instruments support

the openness of the political process by introducing agenda and policy alternatives,

strengthen the principles of transparency, and provide more chances to enforce accountabil-

ity and political control of representative decision-making by elites. Counter-arguments

stress that in large states citizens cannot be directly present in decision-making publics and

therefore must be represented by elected bodies, that many policy subjects are rather remote

and abstract for citizens, and that ordinary citizens do not have enough competence, time

and information to judge complex matters. In addition, it is contended that campaigns for

ballot votes are prone to being emotionalised, and that financially powerful actors or groups

can manipulate the outcome of referendums. More general concerns point out that direct

democracy undermines intermediary institutions and responsible political actors and, thus,

will weaken representative institutions.

These arguments may generally also apply to direct democracy at the local level. Some

negative aspects, however, are not convincing here. Firstly, the argument that large state

territories can only be governed by representative institutions is not convincing for the local

level of politics. Secondly, many issues in the municipality are without doubt very close to

citizens, to their needs and interests as well as to their attention. Sometimes they may be

less complex than on higher state levels, but even with more complexity citizens on the

average will have more opportunities to gain relevant information, criteria to judge and to

participate in discussions/deliberations with many fellow citizens to form their opinion and

decision. In this way, local direct participation can also contribute to more acceptance,

effectiveness and legitimacy of local governance, and serve as an area of learning and expe-

riencing democratic decision-making for democracy at large.

Some general literature and sources

Basic literature on direct democracy in Europe (in English) is not as numerous as one could

assume, and shows a natural focus on the national level. The first broad volume with a