Challenges of Citizen Participation in Infrastructure Policy‐Making in Multi‐Level Systems—The Case of Onshore Wind Energy Expansion in Germany

Abstract

The German Energy Transition is one of the most important and largest infrastructure projects and one of the most significant challenges to German policy‐making. Empirical studies provide evidence for the notion that participation in the decision making process shapes local acceptance of renewable energy technology expansion. In the context of the German Energy Transition, the emphasis on participation in decision making processes seems to involve a paradox. Many different participatory measures have been implemented but many renewable energy projects do not reach a decent level of acceptability. In utilizing the concept of throughput legitimacy, we show that a major threat to legitimacy lies in the incoherent way conventional and unconventional forms of citizen participation are implemented at different scales. According to our analysis, the main challenges are to enable multi‐level participation and to transfer deliberative outcome to the representative system. In referring to innovative democratic procedures in Brazil, we present characteristics and features of participatory measures that may solve these challenges.

Problem‐Solving Across Literatures: Comparative Federalism and Multi‐Level Governance in Climate Change Action

“…Another example is the German Energy Transition infrastructure project, which is considered to be a “wicked” issue in the analysis of Fraune and Knodt (). The authors focus on the bottom‐up processes concerning the citizen dialogue ( agency ) on the future use of wind energy technologies, and how they did not result in “throughput” legitimacy/acceptance of the wind energy expansion, both from the process angle of this concept, which looks at transparency, deliberation and the inclusion of voices based on structural constraints (Schmidt, ), as well as the outcome angle of “acceptability.” The lack of throughput legitimacy was due to the fact that the citizen participation took place mainly near the metropolitan areas while it was the rural population ( agency ) that would be more affected by the wind energy expansions.…”

“…The authors focus on the bottom‐up processes concerning the citizen dialogue ( agency ) on the future use of wind energy technologies, and how they did not result in “throughput” legitimacy/acceptance of the wind energy expansion, both from the process angle of this concept, which looks at transparency, deliberation and the inclusion of voices based on structural constraints (Schmidt, ), as well as the outcome angle of “acceptability.” The lack of throughput legitimacy was due to the fact that the citizen participation took place mainly near the metropolitan areas while it was the rural population ( agency ) that would be more affected by the wind energy expansions. The fact that the multi‐level governance of the Germany Energy Transition was not properly implemented in the process of problem‐solving resulted ( outcome ) in a lack of acceptability of the expansion (Fraune & Knodt, ).…”

“…The lack of throughput legitimacy was due to the fact that the citizen participation took place mainly near the metropolitan areas while it was the rural population (agency) that would be more affected by the wind energy expansions. The fact that the multi-level governance of the Germany Energy Transition was not properly implemented in the process of problem-solving resulted (outcome) in a lack of acceptability of the expansion (Fraune & Knodt, 2017).…”

From the Change of the Pattern to the Change in the Pattern. The Trilateral Game in the Italian Intergovernmental Relations

“…Somehow OAM implies an undefined, but permanent, re-arrangement among level of governments. For these reasons, it seems particularly suitable for analyzing contemporary networked patterns of government and multilevel governance (Agranoff & Radin, 2015; see also Ingold & Pflieger, 2016;Fraune & Knodt, 2017).…”

Infrastructure Policy Between Regional Interests and Societal Goals

“…In the first special issue contribution, Fraune and Knodt (2017) study citizen participation in the German multi-level system with the case of onshore wind energy expansion. As mentioned above in this introduction, the Energy Transition is one of the most important and largest infrastructure projects in Germany.…”