The Embeddedness of Norms of Deliberation in Regulations on Public Consultations in the Multilevel Governance System

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Recently, we have observed an increase in both using and also regulating public consultations in the context of the multi-level government of the EU. To determine if regulations on public consultations offer good conditions for delivering more considered solutions and transforming public attitudes towards public institutions, we have studied such regulations in two EU member countries with different regulatory approaches. Specifically, starting from a definition of deliberative public consultations this article examines to what degree norms of deliberation are embedded in regulations (binding and non-binding) by German and Polish local governments in the context of the law in both countries and their regions, and in European institutions. The findings of this document analysis show, among others, that 1) while deliberation is not yet a framing concept for organizing public consultations, references to deliberative norms that can impact consultation procedures at different stages of those consultations already exist (often implicitly) in many regulations; 2) non-binding regulations implement norms of deliberation to a larger extent than binding ones; and 3) there is a lack of consistency between the regulations that could be addressed by referencing EU resolutions which postulate a more ambitious role of consultations in decision-making processes.