Jonathan Seim, a (former) staff member of our “ELSI – Ethical, Legal and Social Issues” unit, wrote his dissertation on the topic of “Inclusion and Participation in Municipal Online Citizen Participation Processes” (German Title: “Inklusion und Beteiligung bei Bürger*innenbeteiligungsverfahren”) and published it as an open-access book.
About the Book
In his open-access book, Jonathan Seim explores the question of who should be included in citizen participation processes. Whether such consultation procedures can actually strengthen democracy also depends on addressing this question, which has so far received insufficient attention. The study takes an interdisciplinary approach, situated at the intersection of political philosophy and empirical participation research.
Throughout the discussion, the book provides comprehensive assessments of inclusion practices and objectives in municipal citizen participation processes, a legitimacy-theoretical classification of these procedures within the institutional framework of representative democracy, and a proposal for answering the research question developed in light of the debate on the demos problem.
Seim, J. (2025). Inclusion and Participation in Citizen Participation Processes. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-45987-1