Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

2008 Category 3: Germany
The 2008 participatory budget was the pilot project for a comprehensive approach to
introduce e-participation in the City of Cologne. The success of the project so far has
shown that a repeat effort makes a lot of sense. But this will also make the overall
subject of “e-participation” an ever greater priority for communities and institutions.
The success of the participatory budget has shown that the public has a great need for
information about the city’s administration and that there is a great willingness to
participate in the political process.
Lessons Learned
The procedure was well received by the citizens of Cologne, as it is evidenced by the
access rate, which so far has not been reached in Germany, and maybe even in Europe,
with this form of citizen participation. It turned out that the participatory budget
has found its place in the city and that the citizens want to participate, as shown by
their great interest and active participation. If there was any criticism at all, it was
mainly constructive proposals for improving the procedure.
The success is surely due to the extensive PR work in mobilizing the public and the
structure of the procedure. Access barriers were set very low, allowing citizens to
submit contributions not only via the Internet, but also by mail and via the call centre.
In addition, the participation platform was designed to be easy and user-friendly and
access criteria were set quite low. Another success feature was the politicians’ engagement
and promise to deal intensively with the proposals of the citizens.
It soon turned out that the discussion took place on a very constructive level concerning
everyday problems. The subject areas drawing the most attention, such as traffic
lights, street lighting, bicycle lanes and networks, a bike-friendly city, dogs, dog
droppings, dogging, teenagers and children, garbage, cleanliness, public pools, safety,
playgrounds, road repair, traffic and traffic safety, in other words subjects that
everyone encounters every day, were evidence of this. These subjects were a recurrent
theme throughout the entire procedure, and it turned out that four weeks of active
participation is sufficient.
It also turned out that the kind and scope of the Internet service was very well received
by the citizens. An attempt was made to promptly clear up questions and react
to suggestions, and the users were not given much “rein”. Whenever discussions
were on the verge of getting out of hand or there were problems with the behavior of
some, a reaction followed immediately. This was helpful in preventing discussions
from running out of control and politically incorrect opinions being disseminated.
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