Participatory Governance of the German Energy Transition Across the National, Regional, and Local Level

Participatory governance is a characteristic of the German Energy Transition. Different forms of citizen participation have been implemented at the national, regional, and local levels. But opinion polls as well as qualitative case studies show that citizens still call for more involvement in decision-making processes. The current participatory governance regime does neither enhance the German Energy Transition’s legitimacy nor its effectiveness. Our research has shown that participatory governance needs to be implemented across all governance levels in order to allow for deliberation. Value conflicts are negotiated in the context of political decisionmaking at the national level. Interest conflicts are negotiated in the context of spatial planning at the regional and local levels. While citizen participation is only institutionalized in the context of spatial planning, the scope of decision-making in spatial planning is influenced by political decision-making at the national level. In this paper, we will reflect about the conditions and pitfalls of participatory governance discussed in the literature in order to explore how participatory governance of the German Energy Transition needs to be designed to allow for deliberation. In this context, we will especially refer to the Brazilian National Public Policy Conferences. Moreover, we will discuss how to transfer the outcome of participatory governance processes to the decision-making structures of representative democracy.