38 Participatory democracy in Hungary Out of practice due to lack of interest László Komáromi Residents collaborate in prioritizing public spending and allocating the municipal budget; lay volunteers discuss and deliberate local public affairs with the assis- tance of experts and present their suggestions to decision makers; and a group of ordinary citizens consult with a panel of specialists in order to assess the social implications of new technologies and to influence the direction of technical devel- opment - these few examples of participatory budgeting, citizens'jury, and con- sensus conference - are manifestations of the idea of participatory democracy ind emerged in different places of the globe during the last three decades of the 20th century. Nowadays the idea has spread throughout the world, and various procedures and techniques have applied it in practice. The primary objective of the movement is to enhance the participation of people concerned with decisions that relate to the public. According to adherents of this ideal, participation does not only embody a value per se; it may also contribute to increasing the quality of public deliberation, to improve the skills of citizens in dealing with matters of iblic interest and to make appropriate political decisions with greater legitimacy >ataki 2007: 145-155; Schmidt 2008: 236-238). The claim for civil participation is also reflected in a growing international jrmative framework: soft and hard regulations, recommendations and treaties rive to involve people in local, and national and supranational decisions. The st examples are mostly related to environmental matters. Both the Council of :urope and the United Nations addressed the question already at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s (Council of Europe 1979 and 1981, United Nations 1982). In the late nineties, the Aarhus Convention was signed (UNECE 1998), which guaran- tees people's access to information, public participation and access to justice in decision-making processes that concern their environment. In recent times, inter- itional regulations seem to exceed this thematically limited field. In 2009, the iuropean Union's Treaty of Lisbon included Title I I in the Treaty on European _'nion that not only lays down certain general democratic principles but also more mcretely enables one million EU citizens to invite the European Commission to ;s appropriate legal acts on particular issues that fall within its power (European "itizens' Initiative). Still in the same year, the Council of Europe's Conference of INGOs adopted the Code of Good Practice for Civil Participation in the Decision- laking Process that offers a general framework (principles, levels, tools, and