Voter initiative
A voter initiative is a group of non-party citizens who try to influence political decision-making. Their field of activity is above all the municipal area, where they want to win the local public for their view of current problems through actions, signature lists, assemblies, etc.
They have some things in common with other forms of local interest groups or citizens' groups . One difference to the latter is that they operate within the existing institutions and their political concerns are not limited in time and subject. They see themselves as a conscious alternative to the political parties and, due to their structure, are usually closer to the citizens than these.
Some of these groups of people are also active in campaigning, ie they apply outside the political parties for mandates in municipal representative bodies [...] or they support a candidate standing for election. Such initiatives are often called local voter communities or voter groups . At the municipal level there are a few hundred in Germany alone.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education, keyword "Voter Initiative", Bonn 2013 .
- ↑ Alois Becker , Günther Rüther : Municipal voter associations. In: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung - Politische Akademie Eichholz (Hrsg.): Materials for local political education. Eichholz, Bonn 1976, ISBN 3-87198-035-8 , pp. 277-307, here p. 280.