Abstract
Given the current crisis of representative democracy and the risk of political disenchantment turning into (sometimes violent) political protests, we raised the question of “alternatives to the brick and the ballot” in the introduction to this book. This volume has covered a broad range of such alternatives regarding four crucial areas for local governments in both urban and rural contexts: (1) people’s involvement in local development and planning, (2) them having a say on large-scale projects, (3) participatory budgeting and (4) digital participation. This chapter brings together insights from the case studies included in the book based on seven guiding questions that the contributors were asked to bear in mind: (1) the aims of the analyzed participatory processes, (2), the issues that they address, (3) the people they include/exclude, (4) their way of organizing competing local (and other) interests, (5) the format of the participatory processes, (6) their specificities in urban and rural contexts, as well as (7) their actual impact on local decision-making.