A consistent underlying democracy conceptualization for citizens’ partici-pation.

Abstract

In recent years, several cities have promoted citizen participation initiatives as a means to move towards greater democratic governance at the local level. However, a review of the design of the initiatives reveals many shortcomings that call into question the apparent achievements. These shortcomings are partly due to the current imprecise conceptualisation of the term democracy, which does not allow us to decide between different possible designs. This paper therefore outlines a consistent conceptualisation of democracy from different perspectives, which does allow progress toward better participatory designs for the future. From this conception of democracy, two participatory initiatives promoted by the Madrid City Council between 2015 and 2019, linked to a political change in search of ‘greater democracy’, are reviewed, showing various shortcomings in the procedures. Finally, a procedure for participatory initiatives for the reform of urban public spaces is explained.