Open Town Councils
The "Open Town Councils" in Guatemala are spaces for citizen participation at the municipal level. Within the framework of the Municipal law, these democratic innovations are implemented with the purpose of consulting the local population and can be summoned by local governments when the importance of certain problems or decisions warrants the involvement of the civil society. In Guatemala, the decisions taken during the open town councils are not binding, and citizens, despite having a voice during these citizen assemblies, do not have a vote.
Institutional design
Formalization: is the innovation embedded in the constitution or legislation, in an administrative act, or not formalized at all?
Frequency: how often does the innovation take place: only once, sporadically, or is it permanent or regular?
Mode of Selection of Participants: is the innovation open to all participants, access is restricted to some kind of condition, or both methods apply?
Type of participants: those who participate are individual citizens, civil society organizations, private stakeholders or a combination of those?
Decisiveness: does the innovation takes binding, non-binding or no decision at all?
Co-governance: is there involvement of the government in the process or not?
- Formalization
- embedded in the constitution/legislation
- Frequency
- sporadic
- Mode of selection of participants
- open
- Type of participants
- citizens
- Decisiveness
- democratic innovation yields no decision
- Co-Governance
- yes
Means
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Ends
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