Local Participation Mechanisms: Southern Europe Regions in Comparative Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to identify and to compare the local participation mechanisms developed by local governments in order to facilitate citizen participation in public policy-making. Based on two data sets that incorporate participation processes in two different regions (Andalusia and Catalonia, Spain) we will make a comparative description of the participatory reality of these two areas. The analysis will include features of the local contexts where these experiences develop and their main organizational elements such as topics, participants, methodologies or promoters. The first goal of the paper will be to make a comparative description of the reality of these two regions and the second to explain why the characteristics of local participation processes in these two areas present striking differences among them. The chosen regions have been selected considering two important explanatory variables: their level of economic development and the level of political support that these processes receive. One of the regions is considered a less developed region with less political support and the other one is a more developed region with more political support. The two data bases have been built through an experience search in one case and one internet survey in the other. The implications of the two different strategies of data collection will also be discussed in the paper. The data bases include 103 and 156 experiences. The empirical character of this paper and its comparative dimension incorporating two regions are two crucial steps into making a rigorous assessment of the potential utility of those mechanisms, using robust and reliable data.