Public Consultations as Means to Increase Citizens’ Legitimacy Perceptions? An Empirical Examination of Three Mobility Consultation Processes in Germany

Public support for democratic processes and institutions is crucial for the stability of democratic systems, in particular, when it comes to political decisions on contentious issues that will likely leave substantial parts of the population dissatisfied. A case in point are the conflicting interests when it comes to the transformation of the current transport system with its unsustainable patterns of mobility. This dissatisfaction is likely to spill over from the political decision to the assessment of the local authorities and institutions. It may finally even lead to decreasing local legitimacy beliefs, which can be a threat to democratic systems, that rely on the support of their citizens. Against this background, we ask: Can inclusive, participatory decision-making help to mitigate potentially harmful effects and thus strengthen democracy? As a lot of work on participatory democratic theory suggests, democratic innovations that afford citizens more involvement in the decision-making process could contribute to higher public legitimacy beliefs by a number of possible mechanisms: a) by increasing descriptive representation through broadening the base of people involved, b) by fostering mutual understanding or even consensus through a process of constructive engagement and discussion, or c) by improving substantive representation in enabling outcomes that better reflect the interest of the public. While public authorities are increasingly resorting to public consultations, there are still significant gaps in our knowledge about the effectiveness of such participation processes for improving perceptions of democratic authorities, institutions and legitimacy beliefs – especially on a local policy making level. Using data from research project CIMT observing three public consultations on mobility planning in three German municipalities from 2020 to 2024 we use panel surveys to investigate which aspects of public participation - if at all - contribute to higher legitimacy of the local level. Methodologically we differentiate three different measures of political attitudes that operationalize different dimensions of legitimacy: i) assessments about the gap between democratic aspirations and democratic performance (legitimacy beliefs), ii) trust in local political institutions, and iii) satisfaction with local political actors . To assess the role of the different possibly relevant mechanisms we draw on theoretical approaches to descriptive and substantive representation and integrate them with approaches that address the creation of legitimacy at different stages of policy-making (input, throughput, output, and outcome). Our results show, that consultations have minor positive effects on more abstract legitimacy beliefs but increase satisfaction with local authorities. Notably, effects derive not only from actual descriptive representation (though actual participation) but also from the passive observation. While outcome favourability is the most important factor contributing to higher legitimacy, process perceptions play an important role too.