Citizen participation in policymaking is often said to stem from a need to educate citizens in politics (normative), to control government (liberal), or to increase support for government decisions (instrumental) (Pedersen & Johannsen, 2016). Even though citizen participation in policymaking has grown in the last decades, civil society organisations (CSOs) remain essential in established democracies (Foley & Edwards, 1996) as they contribute to influence policy and hold policymakers accountable.

A significant body of literature has explored how the increasing space for participatory democracy influences citizens, politicians and civil servants (Vetter, 2009; Michels & De Graaf 2010), but the literature lacks knowledge about the impact on CSOs. Some conclusions have been drawn on how CSOs position themselves in democratic innovations (Hendriks, 2006, 2019), and how they can contribute to or undermine them (Dodge, 2014). However, we know little about how CSOs might change their role in the local democracy, what the influence is on their relation to the local government, and what their perceptions of legitimacy are of specific democratic innovations.

We conduct case studies in local governments in Flanders to obtain insight in three aspects that are arguably influenced when individual citizens participate in policy decision making. First, we are concerned with the perceptions of legitimacy of CSOs towards the participatory decision making instrument, specifically we focus on input, throughput, as well as output legitimacy perceptions (Schmidt, 2013). Second, we consider the role of the CSO in the local democracy and whether this role is different in a context with individual citizen participation. Third, we examine the relationship of the CSO with the local government and whether this is different in a context with individual citizen participation.

Bringing this together we aim to grasp whether and how the perceptions of legitimacy of local CSOs towards individual citizen participation influences their relation with the local government as well as their role in local democracy. Our research questions are:

- What are the legitimacy perceptions of local CSOs towards citizen participation?

- How do these perceptions influence their relationship with local government and their role in local democracy?

We answer these questions by conducting case studies in local democracies in Flanders that each experiment with different types of participatory democracy. We present the preliminary insights of a comparative case study where referenda are used to involve citizens (aggregative and top-down initiated) and a context where citizens and organisations took the initiative to enhance participation in local democracy (deliberative and bottom up initiated).

The main aim of the paper is to explore the possibilities of introduction of specific tools of citizen participation in the city of Zagreb in order to enhance the existing range of citizen participation tools. As already systematized in the literature there are several groups of democratic innovations (Elstub & Escobar, 2019). It is advocated that democratic innovations are not an end in themselves but a means to achieve the desired end and that is to enhance democratic processes (Pogrebinschi, 2023). Starting from the need to strengthen the role of citizens in local public governance, the paper examines the possibilities and obstacles of introducing selected democratic innovations (mini-publics, citizen surveys, participatory budgeting and digital participation) into the work of the City of Zagreb, particularly into its Zagreb sub-municipal governance structure. Zagreb has two tier sub-municipal structure with city neighborhoods (gradske četvrti) and municipal councils (mjesni odbori) as constituent parts of its governance structure. The empirical foundation of the paper is based on a survey of the views of councilors of city neighborhoods and municipal councils, which was conducted in the beginning of 2023.

Structure of the paper

1. Doctrinal foundations and research questions

a. Concept and democratic innovations literature overview

b. Research question

2. City of Zagreb as the capital city with special status

a. Analysis of the special status of City of Zagreb in the system of local and regional self-government

b. Internal organization of Zagreb – 17 city neighborhoods and 236 local councils (mjesni odbori)

3. Existing regulation and use of citizen participation tools and research of possibilities of introduction of specific democratic innovation tools in the City of Zagreb

a. Research of county statutes in Croatia

b. Data collected through the project “Citizens of Zagreb and democratic innovations”

4. Discussion and recommendations

5. Conclusion

References

This study examines the attitudes of civil servants towards the shift from representative democracy to more hybrid forms that have embedded democratic innovations. The latter is particularly prominent at the local level, allegedly closest to the citizens and observed as an overall school for democracy.

So far, most studies either used qualitative research methods or separately focused on civil servants’ attitudes towards democratic innovations and the role(s) they (can) play herein. In our study, we try to combine both kinds of literature quantitively scrutinizing civil servants’ attitudes and roles. Regarding the latter, we have deliberately not focused on the roles civil servants (can) play but on their normative role conceptions, i.e. their perceptions about the roles they should take on in participatory trajectories. In this, we can expect that the logic of appropriateness of these norms and expectations is related to what civil servants consider more or less preferable forms of democratic innovation. Therefore, our study aims to provide quantitative insights to uncover the relationship between civil servants’ participatory role conceptions and their attitude towards democratic innovations.

We conducted a survey among leading civil servants at the local level in Flanders (Belgium). Our survey reached over 900 civil servants including directors, heads and responsible administrators in various local policy areas. In our analysis, we first described the attitude of local civil servants towards a broad set of citizen participation instruments. We included traditional representative forms (i.e. local elections and advisory boards) and more innovative instruments. The latter has been differentiated between aggregative and deliberative instruments and for the extent of citizen involvement, varying from consultative to (co-) decisive forms. Accordingly, we included four types in our typology (i.e. citizen panels, online citizen consultations, participatory budgeting and referendums).

Our findings show that civil servants in Flanders rated consultative instruments (citizen panels and online citizen consultation) at the highest level when it comes to giving citizens a greater say in local policies. Second, through multiple items in our survey, we examined to what extent role perceptions of local civil servants could explain their attitude towards these instruments. Our analysis shows two components in the role conceptions of civil servants in participatory trajectories. The first seems to cluster around the old public administration paradigm, while the second combines the newer paradigms (the new public management and governance paradigms). A multivariate regression analysis was conducted and gave evidence that this paradigmatic role differentiation matters in civil servants’ assessment of democratic innovations. Preliminary results show that civil servants who stick to traditional roles tend to prefer the more representation-oriented forms and by contrast, those with newer role conceptions are more positive towards (some of) the more innovative tools. Additionally, we will focus on whether this relationship remains valid when we control for other characteristics in the population.

It is highlighted that smart cities are important actors in coping with global crises. It is important for city administrations to follow effective strategies in case of natural disasters, as they are the closest administrative units to the citizens and have a direct impact on the daily lives of local residents. On the other hand, local governments can be seen as secondary institutions during disasters in many countries. This may lead to coordination problems between central and local governments, as central governments may fail to allocate sufficient resources, capacity, and authority to local governments. Smart cities that involve citizens in the service delivery process and implement many participatory principles and institutional mechanisms for this can be defined as citizen-centred smart cities. With the development of new public governance approach citizens are no longer passive objects of public service provision processes, but are active subjects of the process. Smart city administrators implementing this approach allow citizens to become stakeholders in the provision of urban services, take part in projects, participate in decisions which affect them. In this study, the concept of citizen-centred smart city is emphasized and citizen-centred applications of smart cities in Covid-19 are discussed. In this context, smart city applications in Covid-19 processes of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, which is a pioneer in smart city applications in Turkey, have been examined as a case study. Citizen-centric smart city practices of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality during the time of Covid-19 are addressed, and these practices are categorized under six groups. These are smart transportation, e-municipality practices, voluntary participation, crowdfunding, open government data, free internet access, and support for digital education. The study employs the document review method as the primary methodology; thus, activity reports of the Municipality and its website are taken as primary sources. The study concludes that it is essential for local communities to develop collective behavior to cope with a pandemic, and as technology users citizens roles are critical. Further developing digital health care practices and distance education and channelizing resources towards these practices become a prominent field in the post-pandemic stage.