everything that, in the political life of contemporary democracies, does not fall strictly within the logic of representative government
A highly consultative local participatory democracy that stifles decision-making and citizen initiative
Our analysis shows that participatory democracy at commune level is currently highly conducive to deliberation, through the various existing councils and committees, and rich in measures enabling elected officials to enrich public decision-making with the opinions expressed by non-elected officials. On the contrary, it fails to encourage or even stifles the decision-making and citizen-initiative dimensions. The most obvious examples are petitions and local referendums.
Sometimes, a participatory approach will bring together a wide variety and/or a high number of people, take place in conditions of exchange and listening, and lead to genuine co-construction of a project or public policy. Sometimes, on the contrary, real difficulties are encountered, both quantitatively and qualitatively. At the same time, we are seeing the development of more original or ad hoc procedures, such as participatory budgets or citizen conventions[1].
Asking whether "it takes on the citizens' side" may already be part of the problem.
However, asking whether "it takes on the part of the citizens" may already be part of the problem, in a context where the current public offer is mainly oriented towards consultation. As Guillaume Gourgues and Sandrine Rui point out, half-hearted participation in the "public offer of participation" is not necessarily a sign of disinterest in political issues:
it's worth recalling [...] the calls for boycotts, the public denunciations and the appeals against the systems. Those who enter the systems do so with a great deal of skepticism and few illusions, and are not the useful idiots of the great participatory deception [sic]. [...] Those who have experimented with institutional forms of participation often emerge disgusted and defiant, sentiments that sharpen their critical capacity".
Antoine Bézard touches on a similar idea when he writes about participatory budgets:
the question of participation is regularly raised by observers in terms of numbers. [...] The question posed by citizens is that of the results, of the changes that their participation produces [...].
So we need to take a step to the side: how can the public offer of participation better integrate the issue of influence, or even decision, coming from citizens on public decision-making? And how can it be better articulated with citizens' initiatives, including in their protest form?
Strengthen consultation and make room for decision-making and citizen initiative
Tomorrow's communes (or even neighbourhoods, in the case of large cities) will stand out for their proximity, understood in the sense of ease of sociability. This is what continues to distinguish them from other levels of local public entities, in a territorial framework that is likely to be reshaped. It is the level at which people come into contact with each other on a daily basis, but it is not the level at which all public policies are implemented. At its own level, it can already be the seat of a more vibrant democratic life. It can also be a gateway to the diversity of participatory paths that exist, both at its own level and at the level of other local entities.