ABSTRACT

The claim for civil participation is also reflected in a growing international normative framework: soft and hard regulations, recommendations and treaties strive to involve people in local, and national and supranational decisions. The first examples are mostly related to environmental matters. Both the Council of Europe and the United Nations addressed the question already at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. The constitutions of the Visegrad countries enshrine various traditional political rights that enable popular participation. Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia provide detailed regulations on referendums, moreover in Poland and Slovakia, national referendums are mandatory on certain issues. Many forms of participatory democracy are, however, related to local affairs. Local referendums can be called "from above" by the local body of representatives but also forced "from below" by a number of local inhabitants. In addition to referendums, local self-governments may also hold public hearings on various issues that concern their residents.