Infrastrukturkonflikte und Demokratie auf Gemeindeebene

The integration of citizens into political decision making processes is one of the key challenges of today´s democracies. Problems exist for example in the area of infrastructure-projects, with an increasing number of conflicts on the local level. An inquiry of six case-studies of conflicts on windenergy projects in Lower-Austria shows how political actors react on the citizens´ will to participate, which instruments are used to integrate the public, and which elements in general have a positive or negative impact on decision-making-processes. After investigating the case-studies by media research, document analysis and expert interviews, I find that citizens are mostly offered the possibility of a participation in decision making, rather than one in decision shaping. The political actors mainly tried to get citizen approval for already planned projects by referendums, while the joint development of projects or a community framework, in which the project could be integrated, was not intended. Therefore participation is seen as an instrument to decrease the risk for political actors, rather than as an instrument to get better and more legitimate decisions.