The Development of Initiatives and Municipal Referendums in Germany

Introduction

Since the end of the 1970s, many researchers dealt with the idea of a new civil culture that would challenge the party system in many Western countries (Almond & Verba, 1963; Guggenberger, 1980; Clark & Hoffmann-Martinot, 1998; Kämper, 2012, p. 251). It was many due to a shift of values where the concern for environmental issues, well-being and democratic participation gained more and more visibility (Inglehart, 2018; Premat, 2020). The reunification of Germany in 1990 revealed a deep need of citizens to take part in political life (Fijalkowski, 2002, p. 304). Civil society movements were powerful to require a “participatory revolution” (Kaase, 1982) which was expressed by the inclusion of direct democratic tools at the local level (Gabriel & Walter-Rogg, 2006, p. 40). If the State of Baden-Württemberg was the only one that made possible a dose of direct democracy (DD) since 1956, a majority of states included popular initiatives and municipal referendums in the legislation in the early 1990s (Schiller, 2017, p. 65). Furthermore, the popular initiative is the most direct instrument when the citizens collect signatures to require a referendum. In German language, the word Bürgerbegehren qualifies the citizen initiative that can lead to a referendum and Bürgerentscheid is the word for the ballot vote at the local level. Each state legislation defined a threshold of validity for these initiatives and referendums. There is a minimum of signatures to be collected to be able to launch a formal local referendum in a certain period (time factor) and in nearly all states, there is a second hurdle for the validity of the result which is not calculated with the turnout but with the representativeness of the majoritarian position. It is called the approval rate which is the majoritarian position (yes or no) calculated on the base of all registered electors and not only on the quorum of voters (Faden-Kuhne & Gabriel, 2012, p. 50). This institutional creation dates back to 1919 with the Constitution of Weimar (Rohner, 2011, p. 4). In Baden-Württemberg, in 1976, the reform of municipal charts changed the previous requirement of a 50% turnout into an approval rate of 30% (Kost & Wehling, 2003, p. 37).

This institutional frame is a characteristic of the German case when it comes to the use of DD. Both hurdles have an influence on the practice of local referendums and many researchers and practitioners such as the association Mehr Demokratie worked on empirical data to determine the impact of these tools on local decisions (Mehr Demokratie, 2020). At the local level, the discussion is not on the introduction of such instruments as all states have included them but on the minimal realistic quorums that are necessary to use DD (Mehr Demokratie, 2007; 2012; 2014; 2016; 2018; 2020).