Citizen participation: think democratically, invest sustainably

What are citizen participation?

Should the old town get a new look? A village festival is being planned? Or could an entire wind farm even be built on agricultural land on the outskirts of the city? These and other topics are virtually predestined for citizen participation. This is because they include all processes and mechanisms through which citizens can influence political decisions and planning processes. This can happen at local, regional or national level and includes a variety of participation formats - from simple expression of opinion, e.g. at round tables or as part of citizen surveys, to active participation in projects.

For the Involvement of Citizens in So-Called Factual Decisions The OECD distinguishes between three stages of government decision-making:

• information about upcoming decisions and their basis;
• discussing pending decisions with citizens;
• Citizens' codecision.

What forms can citizen participation take?

In terms of content, three areas of citizens' political participation in democracy can be defined: participation in representative structures (e.g. elections), in direct factual issues (e.g. referendums) and participatory forms of participation (e.g. citizens' dialogues).

These in turn can be divided into two forms of participation:

• Formally: This includes legally regulated procedures of direct democracy (e.g. elections, citizens' petitions and referendums).
• Informal: This means dialogue-oriented, consultative and freer procedures in which citizens come together to form opinions or make decisions.

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What are the benefits of citizen participation for cities, municipalities and residents?

Citizen participation in any form promotes participation and transparency. In this way, residents have a say in important decisions and receive regular insight into the progress of the projects. This creates trust and promotes engagement.

Finally, Municipalities and Cities also benefit from the creative and diverse perspective and expertise of their citizens. These results in better and sustainable decisions that are more widely accepted and meet the real needs of the community.

In addition to the democratic-idealistic advantages of citizen participation, these also solve a very real problem for many cities and municipalities: empty coffers. This is where financial citizen participation comes into play. This is a specific form of citizen participation in which residents can invest their financial resources in local projects. For example, in areas such as renewable energy, housing, infrastructure or social projects. The aim is to actively involve citizens in financing and implementing projects that directly affect their community.

In this way, financial citizen participation creates a win-win situation for municipalities and their inhabitants: Cities or municipalities receive additional financial resources and increase acceptance and support for their projects. Because through the participation of citizens, municipalities and cities have access to funds that are independent of government subsidies. This enables faster implementation of projects that would otherwise be a long time coming. Citizens, in turn, benefit financially and can actively contribute to improving their living environment. By promoting such models, sustainable and participatory development of cities and communities can be ensured.

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Citizens benefit just like external investors

This can certainly be worthwhile for the financially involved residents, because investments in local projects often offer attractive interest rates or dividends, which makes them an interesting form of investment.

In Germany, for example, there are numerous community wind farms where residents purchase shares in wind turbines and thus benefit directly from the energy revolution. A well-known example is Citizen wind farm in Ellhöft, Schleswig-Holstein. This project, which all people from Schleswig-Holstein can participate in, includes not only wind energy but also photovoltaics and hydrogen and is therefore considered particularly innovative. There is also from Provider EnBW numerous projects From the Wind and Solar Energy Sectors, in Which Citizens Can Participate.

The bottom line is that citizen participation is an essential tool for strengthening democracy and improving the quality of life in municipalities and cities. By involving citizens in decision-making processes, more sustainable, accepted and innovative solutions can be developed. In addition Do Citizens Benefit Yourself. Be it through financial returns, a stronger sense of community or the opportunity to actively shape their immediate environment. Municipalities and cities should therefore focus more on citizen participation and provide appropriate structures.

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Even specialized platforms such as FINEXITY Enable innovative forms of financial citizen participation. In this way, investors can purchase flexibly tradable, digital shares in corresponding projects from as little as 500 euros and secure attractive return opportunities, and municipalities or project developers can implement their plans as issuers and thus involve local citizens.

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