Citizen Commune

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article should be edited. Further details should be given on the discussion page for the article under “Definition missing, please add” . Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

The citizen commune is "a participatory community in which citizens are directly and voluntarily involved in the preparation and implementation of political decisions in governance arrangements and actively assume responsibility for the community in decision-making areas. Potential participants include private individuals and associations , Institutions, business, associations, churches, initiatives and political parties. The term was introduced by Banner (1998). " (King 2018, 17)

Citizens' commune is understood (in Germany) as a reform of the communal administration in which the administration is built “closer” to the citizen (i.e. decentralization of the communal administration). A citizens' commune should be characterized in particular by the participatory work of the citizens in the development of the commune (see “Principle of participatory democracy ” - also called participatory democracy). But in addition to the call for more closeness to the citizen, there are also concerns about insufficient control of the mayors by the collegiate bodies.

There are still few municipalities (cities, villages) in Germany or the European Union that claim the right to be a citizen municipality . Serious considerations are taking place, for example, in Berlin-Lichtenberg or in Potsdam , where the municipal MPs have decided on the “path to becoming a citizen commune”. Further steps on this path are - in addition to the above-mentioned administrative reform - the introduction of “participatory budgeting ”. But here, too, only the beginnings of actual citizen participation in the preparation of the budget, its decision-making and its implementation by the citizens are visible.

Fields of action and instruments

Potsdam

The "Guide for the Potsdam Citizens' Community", which was jointly developed by the Potsdam City Administration and civil society, identifies five fields of action :

  • Participation in the design and development of the city
  • Participation in the design and development of the district
  • Participation in the decision on financial priorities
  • Creation of a citizen-oriented administration
  • Activation of citizenship

The following instruments are mentioned:

  • Coordination Office Citizens' Commune
  • Town houses
  • Citizens' initiatives and associations
  • Bodies of the city council and local councils
  • Central citizens' meetings
  • Citizens' discussions in the districts (social rooms)
  • City walks by the mayor
  • Advisory boards and networks
  • Theme years and promotions
  • Media and internet
  • Recognition culture

Characteristics

Citizens' potential should therefore be made usable for social problems. Therefore, tasks are shifted to the citizens and civic participation spaces are created. The state and local authorities are supposed to perform activation and support functions. Instruments for involving citizens are self-help institutions, volunteer agencies, local Agenda 21 processes, and community foundations. In this way, the citizen should be involved in decisions and the fulfillment of tasks and the social logic should be made productive. The central state and municipal support function is the establishment of a volunteer infrastructure.

Structures of citizen participation (participation)

Since 2004, the Potsdam Citizens' Forum has been developing initial ideas of feasible structures for citizen participation in the development of the citizen community in joint consultation between representatives of civil society (civil society), very often also with representatives of the city administration. The principle of strict separation between administration and politics as well as business on the one hand and civil society (civil society) on the other applies (see also non-governmental organizations and non-profit organizations).

Participation structures that can only be designed by the citizens themselves are:

  • Citizens' initiatives in the districts . Here the citizens advise all those projects of the city, or draft projects that are submitted to the administration and politics for decision, and in which the citizens of the respective district are also affected.
  • Citizens' Commissions . The citizens' commissions are "mirror-inverted" participation structures of the specialist departments of the administration and the committees of the city council. Competent citizens work together in them and advise on drafts from administration and politics before they make a decision, or work on their own projects that they submit to administration and / or politics for decision-making.
  • A citizens 'participation council was created as a preliminary stage to a citizens ' commission .
  • Citizens forum of the city. In this permanent forum of the city's civil society, the citizens of the city - individual citizens and representatives of civil society - discuss general issues of communal development that affect all citizens.

A common structure of civic participation supported by civil society and administration / politics is a so-called

  • Coordination office . This represents a kind of "hinge" between administration and politics on the one hand and civil society on the other hand. The coordination office transmits the draft decisions of the administration and politics to the responsible civil society participation structure and, in return, forwards the results of the consultation of the civil society to the responsible specialist department or the responsible SIA committee.
  • Website of the citizens' municipality . On it, the drafts of administration and politics are presented for advice by civil society. On the same website, civil society publishes the results of its deliberations on draft decisions (both majority and minority opinions).

Existing or emerging civic communities

Belgium

  • Wallonia region

Germany

  • Berlin-Lichtenberg
  • Hamm
  • Cologne
  • Potsdam

France

  • Dijon
  • Lille

See also

Web links / publications

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lars Holtkamp, ​​Jörg Bogumil: Citizens Commune and Local Governance. P. 233, 246. In: Schwalb / Walk: Local Governance - More transparency and closeness to the citizen ?. Wiesbaden 2007.
  2. ↑ a b Citizens Participation Council. Participation lives from taking part. (No longer available online.) In: Der Oberbürgermeister. State capital Potsdam, 2013, archived from the original on May 13, 2014 ; accessed on May 9, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.potsdam.de
  3. ↑ Participatory budget from 2008. (PDF; 113 kB) In: Printed matter of the district council. Lichtenberg district of Berlin, August 23, 2008, accessed on May 11, 2014 : “Quotation. Rather, the participatory budget 2008ff is about using the legally anchored decision-making channels (district office and district council assembly) on the one hand, and not neglecting the participatory approach (main goal = citizens' municipality) on the other. "
  4. ↑ Christina Emmrich: Experiences in the participatory budget Lichtenberg. (PDF; 1.03 MB) Participatory budgeting in the Berlin-Lichtenberg district. In: District Office Lichtenberg. Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), January 22, 2010, accessed on May 13, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Jörg Pulpanek (contact the city of Hamm): The mission statement Bürgerkommune Hamm. In: Social and Society> Voluntary Work> Citizens' Commune. City of Hamm, January 24, 2012, accessed May 10, 2014 .
  6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated February 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.koelnagenda.de
  7. ↑ Jörg Wehner: City provides information on the interim balance in the mission statement process. In: Office for Press and Public Relations. City of Cologne, May 12, 2009, accessed on May 13, 2014 : “Quotation. In this respect, Cologne is well on the way to becoming a 'citizen commune'. The mission statement report as a guide to the future is the lived insight that we can only maintain and expand Cologne as a livable city together. "
  8. ↑ “Democracy on the doorstep” - Potsdam on the way to becoming a citizen commune ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at potsdam.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.potsdam.de
  9. ↑ (fr) Dijon: Démocratie participative - Conseils de quartiers: Deuxième cru , October 14, 2004, on archives.bienpublic.com
  10. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / democratieparticipativelille.x2000.org