Comeback of Policy Planning? – An Analysis on the Basis of LiquidFeedback

Liquid Feedback is one of the many new internet-based participation tools which sprang up like mushrooms in recent years. Since 2012 this tool is used in several German municipalities though a scientific evaluation is still pending. This paper picks up this issue by discussing the chances of success and the success factors. At the conceptual level, LiquidFeedback is connected with policy planning which is deemed as failed politically and theoretically since the 70s. The combination of legitimated power and their stakeholders concerning their influence on the political agenda-setting prevented a political participation of the broad public. As a matter of fact there is no participation of the one side without a loss of legitimation or power on the other. Even if the political culture has changed since the 70s, some major issues still persist in terms of representativeness, participation, inclusion and quality of decisions. Therefore, the thesis is stated that LiquidFeedback will fail as well as the idea of Policy Planning because the platform is conceptionally unable to resolve the conflict of goals between the institutions demanding for power and legitimation on the one hand and the public desire for participation on the other hand. This will be shown on the basis of the analyzed municipalities Friesland, Rotenburg (Wuemme), Seelze and Wunstorf (Lower Saxony). The paper focusses on the central question in how far LiquidFeedback contributes to participation of the cititzens. This paper will outline the prospects of LiquidFeedback and will show on which factors the success depends. In Addition, the research design of the graduate thesis will be presented.