The Mini-Public on How to Succeed as a Good Community (Wie gelingt gute Nachbarschaft?) took place in Vorarlberg before a Landtags-Enquete (regional parliament commission). Over 1.5 days, 11 people met to form recommendations regarding the question, “How can good community succeed?”
Problems and Purpose
Background History and Context
As this was the fourth successful mini-public in Vorarlberg, the regional government already began drafting an amendment for the regional constitution to include participatory and direct democratic elements.
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Commissioned by the state government of Vorarlberg, the mini-public was professionally carried out by the Büro für Zukunftsfragen.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Participants were selected using population registers (600 people were contacted; 11 participated). It is unclear, however, which criteria were applied.
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The mini-public formulated policy recommendations, which were presented at the Landtags-Enquete (regional parliament commission) „Quartiersmanagement – wie kann gute Nachbarschaft gelingen?“ on November 16th 2012. The recommendations focused on (1) a mediation body for community conflicts; (2) on a so-called “Nachbarschaftsdemokratie” (neighborhood democracy) to implement direct democratic features on the community level; (3) on a neighborhood council, where issues should be solved in a calm and professional matter, while offering enough space for different opinions and arguments. Eventually, these recommendations resulted in a concrete government output, as they influenced the concept “Siedlungsarbeit in Vorarlberg” (settlement-work), which was later implemented.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
See Also
References
External Links
Notes
This entry is based on the POLITICIZE dataset. More information can be found at the following links:
- Paulis, Emilien; Pilet, Jean-Benoit; Panel, Sophie; Vittori, Davide; Close, Caroline, 2020, "POLITICIZE Dataset", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Z7X6GT, Harvard Dataverse, V1
- Pilet J-B, Paulis E, Panel S.,Vitori D & Close C. 202X The POLITICIZE Dataset: an inventory of Deliberative Mini-Publics (DMPs) in Europe. European Political Science.