Citizens’ Participation in the Alpine Region

As a response to what, at the one hand, is called the “crisis of democracy” or, more correctly, “the crisis in democracy” and, at the other hand, “democratic backsliding”, there has been a rapid increase of participatory processes and democratic innovations that go beyond elections, such as citizens’ assemblies and other forms of “mini-publics”. In particular, the crisis of channels of decision-making within representative democracy prompts a rethinking of how the voices of citizens can be better heard and integrated, and, as a consequence, a rethinking on how representative, direct and deliberative democracy ought to better complement each other, for the sake of good governance. The Alpine region is no exception to these trends. The paper looks into frameworks of participatory democracy in and across governmental levels in the Alpine area. First, it focuses on whether and how practices are institutionalized. Second, it analyzes the yet understudied topic of democratic innovations in border areas and in cross-border cooperation: Are there transnational forms of citizens’ participation? Can border regions serve as laboratories for not only consultation of the citizens but even for joint decision-making with the citizens? The paper especially focuses on the possibilities offered by the European Groupings for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) situated in the Alpine area.