Neighborhood Councils as A Local Participation Practice: The Case of France

Abstract

In local governments, which are accepted as the cradle of democracy, the different needs and different solutions of different local units, the fact that the compatriots are affected by administrative decisions rather than political ones, has led to the need for active participation of the compatriots in the decisions of local governments and has led to the emergence of several methods and practices related to administrative participation. Neighborhood councils are one of the practices that ensure the active participation of citizens in the social life created in 2002, by the Law of "Démocratie de Proximité" (proximity democracy) in France. The aim of this study is to examine and describe the neighborhood councils, one of the participation tools that enable its citizens to participate actively in community life. The quantitative analysis method was used as the research method in the study, and in this context, a literature review and document analysis were used. In the first part of the study, a conceptual framework was created over the concepts of neighborhood and participation and examples of neighborhood participation in the world were presented. Then, the decentralization reforms carried out in France since 1982 and the arrangements made to increase local participation in these reforms were examined. In the second part of the study, the tools of local participation and local democracy in France were examined, and then the neighborhood councils formed by the "Proximity Democracy" law created in 2002 were evaluated.