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Citizen Participation in Multi-level Democracies offers an overview of new forms of participatory democracy in federally and regionally organised multi-level states. Its four sections focus on the conceptual foundations of participation, the implementation and instruments of democracy, examples from federal and regional States, and the emergence of participation on the European level.
There is today a growing disaffection amongst the citizens of many states towards the traditional models of representative democracy. This book highlights the various functional and structural problems with which contemporary democracies are confronted and which lie at the root of their peoples' discontent. Within multi-level systems in particular, the fragmentation of state authority generates feelings of powerlessness among citizens. In this context, citizens' participation can in many cases be a useful complement to the representative and direct forms of democracy.
About the author
Cristina Fraenkel-Haeberle, (1964) Privatdozentin, Dr. iur, Research Fellow at the German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer; former Senior Researcher at the Institute for Studies on Federalism and Regionalism at EURAC, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy). Her main research is on comparative public law.
Sabine Kropp, (1964) Professor of German Politics at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science, Free University Berlin. Her main research is on comparative federalism and multilevel governance as well as on parliamentarism and public administration.
Francesco Palermo, (1969) Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the University of Verona and Director of the Institute for Studies on Federalism and Regionalism at EURAC, Bolzano/Bozen (Italy). His main research is on comparative federalism, minority rights, constitutional adjudication and European law.
Karl-Peter Sommermann, (1956) Professor of Public Law, Political Theory and Comparative Law at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. His main research is on the Europeanisation of constitutional and administrative law, comparative law, human rights protection and development cooperation.
