The Citizen – Instrument and Beneficiary af Local Participatory Democracy. Models of Good Practices. The French Experience

The aim of our study is to identify and describe how the French legislator brought under regulation the participation instrum ents which allow the French citizens to actively get involved in the life of their society, except the periodic elections. Besides the national referendum, the legislator thus established the local referendum, the petitionary matters, the local council, the consultative committees etc. The local French authorities established in their turn a series of instruments and resorts designed to offer the citizen the possibility to have a passive role play within the decision-making process. In order to illustrate the theory, we have choosen a few models of good practices in Lyon, Rhône-Alpes region, and Lille. The provided examples made us draw the conclusion that the local authorities focus their attention on the French citizen.