Die Ko-Produktion von freiwilligen kommunalen Aufgaben mit Hilfe finanzieller Bürgerbeteiligungsmodelle unter Einbeziehung von Sparkassen und Kreditgenossenschaften

The co-production of public tasks has become more important in Germany in recent years. This development impacts different stakeholders of a municipality. This paper analyses the institutional background of public savings banks and cooperative banks in the light of their prospective relationship to co-production through citizen financial participation schemes. The duty of cooperative banks to promote their members in combination with their regional focus and the public mission of German savings banks provide several action- theoretical intersections with the motives of citizens participating in such co-production schemes. This paper will derive a possible positioning of the banking institutions in relation to citizen financial participation from their stakeholder-oriented business models. In addition, the research will consider developments of civil society which might have an influence on the behavior of public savings banks and cooperative banks in the future. The paper begins by presenting the theoretical framework of co-production as part of the provision of public services. Second, the article examines citizen financial participation schemes as part of the New Public Governance (NPG) agenda. The analysis of the institutional background of the public savings banks and the cooperatives banks suggests that such banks should have a positive attitude to citizen financial participation. It is shown that both institutions should promote and support citizen financial participation schemes.