The use of contracts to achieve public goals has been gaining traction since the 1980s. In this article, I investigate the implications of the increased use of private law instruments for participatory democracy. This study starts with problematising the notion of contracts and proposes a conceptual model to study contractual relations in participatory processes. Next, through a detailed description of two case studies in Amsterdam and Hamburg, I show the consequences of contractual governance for participatory democracy in urban development. Namely, the interests of commercial parties and government agencies are incorporated in contracts, whereas the interests of residents are incorporated in non-legal agreements.

This has four implications for our understanding of participatory democracy and urban politics. First, the arena of public decision making has shifted from public meetings to contractual negotiations. Second, contracts are not set in stone. Mobilisation by residents can influence, adjust and politicise agreements. However, third, residents need to be able to mobilise and negotiate. This creates new boundaries between residents who are able to make deals and those who are excluded. Lastly, investigating how contracts transform urban politics should take a broad view on how contractual relations are formed and focus on both non-legal and contractual agreements.

自 1980 年代以来，使用合同来实现公共目标一直受到关注。在本文中，我调查了更多地使用私法工具对参与式民主的影响。本研究首先对合同概念进行问题化，并提出了一个概念模型来研究参与过程中的合同关系。接下来，通过对阿姆斯特丹和汉堡的两个案例研究的详细描述，我展示了契约治理对城市发展中参与式民主的影响。即，商业当事人和政府机构的利益被纳入合同，而居民的利益被纳入非法律协议。

这对我们理解参与式民主和城市政治有四个意义。首先，公共决策的舞台已从公开会议转向合同谈判。其次，合同不是一成不变的。居民的动员可以影响、调整和政治化协议。但是，第三，居民需要能够动员和谈判。这在能够进行交易的居民和被排除在外的居民之间创造了新的界限。最后，研究合同如何改变城市政治应该对合同关系的形成方式有广泛的看法，并重点关注非法律和合同协议。