Referendum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A poster advertises the signing of a referendum to maintain a grammar school at Ostring in Bochum, 2008.

The citizens' initiative is an instrument of direct democracy in Germany at the municipal level . In certain matters, the citizens of a local authority (e.g. municipality, district, district, etc.) can apply for a referendum . This application, which has to be signed by a certain number of eligible voters , is called a referendum. At the state or federal level , this procedure is referred to as a referendum .

A special form is the collecting citizens 'request (also: collecting citizens' request or correction request ). It does not formulate a specific political proposal by the citizens, but calls for the repeal of a recent decision by the local council. Shortened deadlines often apply to citizen petitions that are collected.

Procedure

In Germany, direct democracy at the local level is mostly designed as a two-stage process. The referendum (1st stage) is considered to be an application for the implementation of a referendum (2nd stage). Only in Berlin, Bremen and Thuringia is the procedure in three stages, since the citizens' petition is preceded by an application for approval. With the exception of Hesse and Baden-Württemberg, petitions for citizens can also be made at the district level in all of the federal states.

For a referendum to be successful, a certain number of signatures must be collected within a specified period. The exact procedural rules, e.g. B. the number of signatures to be collected, however, are regulated differently in each federal state and are usually laid down in the respective municipality or district ordinance or municipal constitution (see overview ). In Munich, for example, only 3% of those eligible to vote have to sign in order to bring about a vote; in Hamburg, 2-3% of a single district is sufficient. In Dresden, however, the proportion is 5%, in several federal states up to 10%, in Saarland even up to 15%. Since in the past collecting signatures in large cities, which are socially more heterogeneous compared to villages, has proven to be significantly more difficult, some federal states have introduced a graduated quorum of signatures . The larger the municipality, the fewer percentage signatures need to be collected.

Shortened deadlines often apply to public petitions that are collected. These mostly relate to the day of the announcement of a council resolution or - if announcement is not required - to the day of the meeting of the resolution passed.

If the initiators of a referendum have succeeded in collecting the necessary number of signatures, the request is first checked for formal admissibility and then submitted to the elected municipal representative for advice. This now has the opportunity to decide whether to accept or reject the petition within a certain period of time. If the representation rejects the referendum by a majority, a referendum is made.

Conditions of use

In addition to the quorum of signatures, petitions for citizens are subject to a number of other restrictions. The exact form and scope of interpretation can vary greatly depending on the federal state and the responsible authority. The association Mehr Demokratie last published a nationwide overview of the application conditions in the individual federal states in 2018 in cooperation with the University of Wuppertal and the Philipps University of Marburg .

Topic exclusion

In all federal states, so-called “ negative catalogs ” apply , which explicitly exclude important local political issues (e.g. the budget or land-use planning ) from referendums. This means that citizens' petitions are permissible on all topics, except for the exclusions listed in the negative catalog.

Although the extent of the exclusion of topics varies from state to state, petitions for citizens are excluded in almost all states:

  • the municipal budget (in its entirety),
  • Decisions in the sole competence of the mayor,
  • the staffing and internal organization of public institutions as well
  • Decisions in appeal and appeal proceedings.

Cost recovery / cost estimation

In six federal states, the initiators of a referendum are calling for a qualified cost recovery plan to be drawn up for the additional expenses incurred in the event of a successful referendum. In practice, this requirement has often turned out to be a considerable hurdle, as it requires deeper insights into the structure of the respective municipal budget and sometimes financial knowledge, which most citizens can hardly assume.

In Berlin, the presumed additional costs are determined by the responsible district office and must be shown by the initiators on the signature lists. A similar method of cost estimation applies in Brandenburg (since 2018), North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein (each since 2013) and in Saxony-Anhalt (since 2018). The federal states of Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg completely waive a cost recovery proposal to be submitted by the initiators; in Thuringia, this only has to be submitted in the case of citizens' requests for the amount of taxes.

Framework conditions in the federal states

Framework conditions for petitions by federal states
general Referendum collecting citizens' petition
state regulated in Quorum of signatures and deadlines Topic exclusion
(selection)		 Deadline as decided by the Council
Baden-WürttembergBaden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg Section 21 of the municipal
code is not permitted at district level		 4.5–7% / no deadline except for:
land-use planning (partially),
tariffs and charges,
municipal taxes		 3 months
BavariaBavaria Bavaria Art. 18a of the municipal code
Art. 12a of the district code		 3–10% / no deadline except for:
budget charter		 no deadline
→ Main article: Citizens' petitions and referendums in Bavaria
BerlinBerlin Berlin (districts) Section 45 of the District Administration Act
- there are no districts		 3% / 6 months No subject exclusion, but only possible on request for district budget plans
,
district special funds,
development and landscape plans
 no deadline
→ Main article: Citizens' petitions and referendums in Berlin
BrandenburgBrandenburg Brandenburg Section 20 of the municipal
code, Section 18 of the district code		 10% / no deadline except for:
budget statutes,
taxes and tariffs,
land-use planning		 6 weeks
BremenBremen Bremen Art. 69–71 of the state constitution ,
§§ 8-26 of the referendum law
, there are no districts		 4,000 / 5% / 3 months except for:
budget,
taxes, contributions and fees		 3 months
Bremerhaven § 15b of the constitution of the city of Bremerhaven;
Sections 1–4, 6 and 8 of the Citizens' Participation Act -
there are no districts		 5% / no deadline only for:
public institutions,
consent to area changes,
assumption of new tasks,
honorary citizenship		 3 months
HamburgHamburg Hamburg (districts) Section 32 of the District Administration Act
- there are no districts		 2-3% / 6 months except for:
household		 no deadline
→ Main article: People's legislation (Hamburg)
HesseHesse Hesse Section 8b of the municipal
code is not permitted at the district level		 3–10% / no deadline except for:
budget charter,
land-use planning (partially)		 8 weeks
Mecklenburg-Western PomeraniaMecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Section 20 (municipality) and
Section 102 (districts) of the municipal constitution		 2.5–10% / no deadline except for:
budget,
taxes and tariffs,
land-use plans		 6 weeks
Lower SaxonyLower Saxony Lower Saxony Section 32 of the Municipal Constitutional Act 5-10% / 6 months except for:
budget charter,
taxes and fees,
land-use planning		 6 months
(
3 months for announcements )
North Rhine-WestphaliaNorth Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia Section 26 of the municipal code,
Section 23 of the district code		 3–10% / no deadline except for:
budget charter,
taxes and fees,
land-use planning (partially)		 3 months
(
6 weeks for announcements )
Rhineland-PalatinateRhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate Section 17a of the municipal
code, Section 11e of the district code		 5–9% / no deadline except for:
budget charter,
taxes and fees,
land-use planning		 4 months
SaarlandSaarland Saarland Section 21a (municipality) and
Section 153a (district) Municipal Self- Administration Act 		5–15% / no deadline
(at district level 9–12%)		 except for:
budget charter,
taxes and fees,
land-use planning		 2 months
SaxonySaxony Saxony § 25 SächsGemO, § 21 SächsLKrO 5–10% / no deadline except for:
budget charter,
duties, tariffs and fees		 3 months
Saxony-AnhaltSaxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt Section 26 of the municipal constitution 4.5–10% / no deadline except for:
budget charter,
taxes and fees,
land-use planning		 2 months
Schleswig-HolsteinSchleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein Section 16g of the municipal code,
Section 16f of the district code		 4–10% / no deadline except for:
budget charter,
taxes and fees,
land-use planning (partially)		 no deadline
ThuringiaThuringia Thuringia Sections 17, 17a and b (municipality) and
Section 96a (district) of the municipal constitution		 4.5-7% / 4 months except for:
budget charter,
financial plan,
taxes and fees		 4 weeks

history

The first referendums and referendums in Germany took place in various countries of the Weimar Republic ( Baden , Bavaria , Braunschweig , Lippe , Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Oldenburg , Saxony , Saxony-Altenburg and Thuringia ). A total of 551 procedures are known for the period from 1919 to 1933, the number of unreported cases is estimated to be even higher. 406 of the 551 known citizens' petitions and decisions during the Weimar period were requests for dissolution, in other words, procedures aimed at the early recall and re-election of the community council.

Until 1990, the municipal constitutions of the individual states of the Federal Republic of Germany only contained regulations for the implementation of citizens' petitions and referendums in Baden-Württemberg. This regulation was introduced in Baden-Württemberg in 1956. In the course of the German unification process , however, this instrument of direct democracy was introduced in all federal states by 2005 - most recently in Berlin.

rating

In the first decades of the Federal Republic, especially from the ranks of the political parties and central municipal associations, fears were expressed about a troublemaking and populist instrumentalisation of local politics through petitioning for citizens. In the course of the expansion to all federal states and a more citizen-friendly design of the legal framework between 1987 and 2018, this assessment has largely dispersed. The German Association of Cities emphasized that the broad public debate of a referendum would have an increase in acceptance, also and especially for controversial decisions in the municipality.

Citizens' petitions are valued primarily by civil society and the numerous new social movements that have emerged since the 1970s as an important instrument both for enforcing specific political demands in the municipality and as a means of building public pressure on decision-makers. On the one hand, the procedure offers the possibility of reaching binding resolutions, if necessary, even against the resistance of a political elite; on the other hand, the documented number of supporters strengthens the negotiating position of the initiative.

In practice, petitions for citizens repeatedly lead to legal disputes, in which formal legal errors are often in the foreground. For example, in 1996 the first citizens' petition in the city of Bochum was not allowed despite a sufficient number of signatures, because the signatories had given their age instead of their date of birth and the initiator did not make a cost recovery proposal that met the requirements. In some federal states, such as Berlin, attempts are being made to counter this problem by advising the initiators before the referendum. But here too, a referendum was declared to have failed in 2006, as individual details were missing or incomplete in 4000 of the 11,000 signatures collected. After a lawsuit by the initiators, the Berlin administrative court saw this procedure as “disproportionate”. The lack of individual mandatory information can only justify a non-recognition of a statement of support if the person signing cannot be identified beyond doubt on the basis of the further information.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Citizens' petition report 1956–2017
  2. ↑ In the city of Bremen, citizens' petitions are also referred to as popular petitions . Initially, the provisions for referendums contained in the constitution of the state of Bremen apply. Different regulations for referendums in the city of Bremen are laid down in the referendum law.
  3. ↑ In Bremen, the application for approval of a referendum for the city of Bremen must be signed by at least 4,000 citizens who are eligible to vote in the city of Bremen.
  4. ↑ The construction of Bremen as a two-city city-state, which is unique in Germany, means that the city of Bremerhaven has its own municipal constitution .
  5. ↑ On July 1, 2016, a municipal and administrative reform came into force, which also included changes to the direct democratic procedures at the municipal level.
  6. ^ Neumann in: Handbook of communal science and practice - Volume 1. Berlin Heidelberg 2007. 3rd ed. P. 354.
  7. ^ GemO Baden-Württemberg v. July 25, 1957, Journal of Laws p. 129.
  8. ↑ Press release ( memento of September 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) of the German Association of Cities on the specialist conference “Representative versus Immediate Democracy in the Commune”, November 27, 2000.
  9. ↑ Directory ( Memento of May 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 62 kB) of citizens' petitions and referendums in North Rhine-Westphalia.
  10. ^ Citizens' petition for parking was successful , Birgit Eltzel, Berliner Zeitung, 3. Main 2007.