The aim of the project is to examine, systematize and analyze the experiences with various democracy initiatives in seven Norwegian municipalities – Bergen, Bodø, Lørenskog, Gjøvik, Sunnfjord, Suldal and Vadsø. These municipalities have been selected by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development to participate in the programme "Local democracy in pioneer municipalities".
The seven municipalities carry out various measures to stimulate local democracy between elections. We map and analyze:
- how the municipalities recruit participants for the measures, and how representative the participants are of the group that is being targeted;
- how the democracy initiatives are organized; and
- how the democracy initiatives are connected to the representative system and channelled into the policy-making process.
Data collection takes place:
- by an initial study of documents about the measures;
- through qualitative interviews in the municipalities; and
- by sending out a survey to the municipalities towards the end of the project period.
