Varieties of local participation? A vignette survey on local executive politicians’ legitimacy perceptions towards different participatory arrangements

Abstract

This study takes the hitherto understudied perspective of local executive politicians as crucial stakeholders spanning the boundaries of representative and participatory democracy. It aims to examine their legitimacy perceptions of different participatory arrangements. The research was conducted by means of a vignette study in which we included a representative arrangement and six participatory arrangements for which we differentiated for types of initiator (government or citizens) and three types of citizen involvement (consultative, co-decisive and decisive). We found that executives assessed government-initiated arrangements as more legitimate than citizen-initiated ones. Moreover, they perceived the co-decisive arrangement as the most legitimate.