Democratic discrepancies in urban sustainable development between residents’ policy preferences and existing policy plans

Abstract

Cities are critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a consequence, cities are increasingly considered policy actors of global relevance. However, there is a wide range of policy issues considered under the umbrella of urban sustainable development (USD) such as biodiversity protection, circular economies, education, transportation, or poverty reduction. Given this wide range of USD, our research seeks to analyze whether residents' USD preferences align with the priorities of existing USD policy plans. To this end, we examine the preferences of 5,800 residents across eight systematically selected European cities – Antwerp, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Lisbon, Manchester, Marseille, Milan, and Valencia - through an original, preregistered survey experiment. Participants were asked to rate randomly composed USD policy plans out of 17 identified potential USD policy issues. In parallel, we analyzed 167 actual existing USD policy plans from the same cities. Our findings indicate a significant discrepancy between residential USD preferences and the cities' pursued USD policy plans. While the USD policy plans predominantly prioritize USD policy issues like education, biodiversity, transportation, and urban green spaces, residents expressed preferences for issues tied directly to their basic and everyday needs such as cost of living, public health, poverty, and unemployment. This democratic discrepancy underscores the importance of securing basic human needs as integral parts of USD.