Abstract
The Swiss political system is widely known for its extensive direct democracy. At the local level, direct democratic instruments are particularly elaborate. Citizens have numerous occasions to participate in decision-making and to influence communal policies. Therefore, citizen participation in Swiss local politics has long been considered unproblematic. However, innovative forms of citizen participation in local politics have become increasingly common throughout Switzerland in recent years, particularly so in the field of local development planning. The aim of this paper is to explore this phenomenon. The empirical basis for this paper consists of 48 citizen forums in the field of urban planning in Swiss communes, implemented by Frischer Wind AG since the year 2000. Ultimately, our goal is to understand in what way the use of new forms of citizen participation in Swiss communes originates and/or responds to deficits in the existing procedures of democratic decision making in the field of local development planning.
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