Citizen participation in the institutional decision-making process within a (quasi) regional context. An analysis of Foral Norm 1/2010, of July 8, of thehHistorical territory of Guipuzcoa

Abstract

Public participation in the process of institutional decision-making poses significant problems when it is a question of its application within institutions whose territorial scope transcends the strictly local. The development of avenues of participation at a regional level is proving to be slow and difficult. In this sense, the Historic Territories (HT) within the context of the institutional organisation of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country offers a suitable profile for the configuration of means of public participation, insofar as they have the features of regional legal systems but on a relatively small scale. In this respect, analysis of Guipuzcoan Provincial Law (PL ) with regard to public participation is of considerable interest. Particularly noteworthy is the configuration of the processes of participatory deliberation in the field of the exercise of competences of the Diputación Foral, executive organ of the Government of the HT, which constitute the fundamental axis upon which is based the system of public participation designed in the NF . This participation is especially interesting due to the initiative from which it arises and the system of government and administration of public participation in the HT, as well as the regulation of the development of the participatory process, in which a decisive role is played by the Provintial Directorate) for public participation —an independent body— and the elaboration by the latter of the ‘Protocol’ of each process of participatory deliberation.