Introduction

Participatory institutions have become increasingly widespread inWestern societies. From Irish citizens selected at random makingdecisions about their constitutional reforms through CitizenAssemblies, to German Länder using bottom-up referenda more often,or almost 2,000 Polish municipalities discussing their financesthrough participatory budgeting, these institutions are more usualtoday than a few decades ago. Spain has also participated in thisevolution, at a slower pace and with different characteristics, aswill be discussed in this chapter.

These institutions have been created for different reasons. In acontext of growing political distrust, some of their promoters areespecially concerned about improving the relationship betweencitizens and elected representatives, others want to create moreeducational opportunities for participation, while others considerthem especially important to improve policy-making or produce socialchange. In any case, it is clear that both for political theoristsand participants, the policy outputs of these institutions, theirpotential role in discussing and formulating policies arefundamental reasons to exist. Their contribution to thepolicy-making process may sometimes focus on technical aspects,either adding or amending detailed policy proposals, whereas inothers it may draw attention to issues that should be raised orwhich are important concerns for specific political actors. Whatevertheir final impact on specific policies, their value cannot beassessed without considering their role in the policy-makingprocess.

Our definition of participatory institutions is broad, but does notinclude all kinds of citizen participation activity. Voices thatcome from society (citizens or civil society organisations) must bepresent (thus, we exclude from our analysis advisory bodies formedexclusively by experts or administration members). Theseinstitutions have been normally created, or at least approved, bypublic administrations. Beyond these two central characteristics(citizen voices present and some kind of recognition from above),they include a wide range of institutions, from more formal andpermanent ones (for example advisory councils), to one-shotconsultations or to long-term processes that aim to be repeated on aregular basis (for example participatory budgeting).

This chapter has two main sections (see Figure 10.1). The first oneoffers a general overview of these institutions, whereas the secondsection tries to provide a more detailed picture by focusing on themost common participatory institution (at least in the Spanishcase), advisory councils.