In a report by the French delegation for local authorities and decentralization, Senator Françoise Gatel (UC) and her colleague Jean-Michel Houllegatte (Soc) say that local democracy is "opening up to new forms" that contribute to "invigorating" it.Françoise Gatel (UC) and her colleague Jean-Michel Houllegatte (Soc), in a report by the delegation for local authorities and decentralization, which they presented to the press on February 24.

Like many of their parliamentary colleagues in recent months, the two elected officials have sought remedies for the "growing disinterest in local government.Like many of their parliamentary colleagues in recent months, the two elected officials have sought remedies to the "growing disinterest in public life" and ways to "rebuild the link between the French and their elected representatives at the local level.

The senators took the decision to identify local "good practices" and were particularly interested in what they called "implicit democracy". A somewhat learned term that designates "this daily democracy that many elected officials practice without really naming it", with the aim of "seeking the involvement of citizens on very local projects", according to Jean-Michel Houllegatte.

"Citizen gardening"

In recent years, it has spread with, for example, the formula of the citizen's day which, after being tested in Berrwiller (Haut-Rhin), now attracts some 1,000 municipalities. The concept: every year, during one day, the inhabitants of the commune or the neighborhood volunteer to carry out projects that they themselves have proposed (see our article of last June). In Châteaugiron (Ille-et-Vilaine), the "Jardinons citoyen" initiative was born from the desire of the inhabitants of a neighborhood to participate in the choice of the plant layout and the maintenance of their streets. "They formed a participatory collective and every month, they spend a morning, all together, weeding and flowering," jointly with the green space agents, testifies Françoise Gatel, who was mayor of the city until 2017.

In addition, the city's policy has been a "laboratory" for implicative democracy. It is in this context, for example, that citizen walks take place: elected officials and residents walk the streets of a neighborhood in order to make a field diagnosis of possible changes or projects to be carried out. For their part, the neighborhood associations involve residents in improving their living environment by proposing social activities (solidarity gardens and laundromats, cafés or restaurants), as well as services (small gardening jobs, do-it-yourself projects, etc.).

According to the authors, initiatives such as that of the Voisins solidaires association, which aims to "strengthen local social ties", also belong to this democracy made up of "small things", but which have a "knock-on effect" and, in the end, "quite colossal effects". In Châteaugiron, inhabitants who participated in the maintenance of their street wanted to hold the polling station at the time of the elections, relates Françoise Gatel.

Assessors drawn by lot

This implicative democracy "cannot be modelled". It is up to the territories to set up their own initiatives according to their characteristics and the needs of their populations. However, the authors put forward a few ideas to encourage it. Such as the idea of drawing by lot from the electoral lists some of the assessors called upon to run the polling station on the day of an election, or the extension to the actors of "implicative democracy" of the citizen commitment account - a module of Moncompteformation - which gives the right to training.

It should be noted that the actors of participatory democracy would benefit from the same possibility. Indeed, the authors consider this one as indispensable. But this other form of local democracy has "certain limits", according to them. The consultation bodies (neighborhood councils, citizens' councils, etc.) are at the mercy of "opinion leaders" who do not always understand that "the decision does not belong to them" in the end, they point out. This form of democracy must be "rigorously organized", according to them. They therefore recommend that local elected officials and citizen advisors follow joint training courses "on the issues and tools of participatory democracy".

When they resort to participatory democracy, the elected officials should not fear to assert the legitimacy they hold from direct universal suffrage, the senators also stress. Representative democracy remains "the cornerstone of our system", even if it is going through "a period of crisis" marked in particular by the unprecedented decline in participation recorded in the local elections of 2020 and 2021.

Postal voting

To get out of this bad situation, the senators recommend first of all to take the path of parity in the assemblies and local executives. In this respect, they support the bill of deputy Élodie Jacquier-Laforge, which the National Assembly adopted in first reading in early February. In addition, in order to facilitate voter participation, the senators are in favor of experimenting with voting by mail in the next local elections, as well as maintaining the possibility for the same proxy to collect two proxies. For the record, the government was opposed to these two avenues dear to the High Assembly.

Finally, to encourage the commitment of elected officials in a context of increasing incivility towards them, the senators propose in particular to "make automatic" the functional protection of local elected officials.

Source: www.banquedesterritoires.fr