Communication and participatory democracy in open councils: a case study

Studies about participatory democracy have paid scant heed to local municipalities with few residents. However, their reduced population size, their functioning, and the proximity among the neighbours, make them an interesting example of the direct participation of citizens in democracy. In this context, mass media do not play the usual role in promoting participation. On the contrary, they become much less important for this task, in favour of other communicative dynamics. This research analyses the case study of a particular of type local municipality, the open council, in the region of Comarca Campo de Daroca, in Zaragoza (Aragon). The objective is to describe the communicative features that assemble the relationship between the mayor and the neighbours -and so ease their participation in public issues-, identifying the tools employed and their type of use. In order to do that, the mayors of 11 open councils were interviewed in-depth. The results of this research draw the features of the communicative model in open councils, highlighting its horizontality, proximity and personal and direct contact between mayor and neighbours. The communicative tools comprised in this model are closer to the internal communication in organizations, rather than to the tools deployed by much more populated municipalities. Mass media are not intermediate or channel for communication with citizens in this peculiar ecosystem, to which they hardly belong. The proximity logic moves these municipalities away from bureaucracy and intermediations and turns communication tools into participatory ones.