Direct Democracy at the local level: a comparison of eight municipalities from four countries around Lake Constance (Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland)

Abstract

Municipalities/local authorities are the foundation stones of the superstructure of the state. Municipalities function, on the one hand, as the lowest level of state administration; and on the other, they are also the vehicles of the idea of communal self-government. Municipa¬lities thus serve to resolve local problems on the one hand, while on the other they mediate between the individual level and the remoter organs of the state. They thus represent the most immediate and direct point of reference in the citizens' relationship with the state. It would seem reasonable to assume, at least as a preliminary working hypothesis, that similar social problem sets (against a relatively homogeneous socio-economic background) will find solutions in similar institutional-political models („bottom-up“ hypothesis). If the hypothesis is correct, we would expect to find a large degree of conformity within the present sample in terms of the forms of local direct democracy.