Foreword The Legal Office of the Municipality of Shanghai and the Friedrich­Ebert-Stiftung's(FES) Office for International Cooperation in Shanghai have collaborated for a number of years, focusing particularly on the problems of local development. German and Chinese experts from public administration, academia, and various organizations come together to exchange opinions and information on new developments, compare views, and nd mutual inspiration in new approaches. On 17 and 18 September 2008 the Legal Office of the Municipality of Shanghai and the FES organized a Workshop on “ Public Participation in Public Decision-making Processes. ” A framework had already been established for the topic in question by the visit of a Legal Office delegation to Germany at the invitation of the FES. What forms of public participation in local decision-making have been developed ? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches ? Has the public accepted participation or rejected it ? Has the legitimacy of local authorities been increased or has criticism of local politics become more vocal ? Needless to say, it was not possible to discuss every instance of local public participation in China and Germany at the Workshop and to present a comprehensive overview. The organizers had to make a selection of the models and of the persons to present them. The animated debates during the Workshop showed, however, that we had identified some signicant examples in the area of democratic development at the local level. We therefore decided to publish the presentations and so make them accessible to a wider audience. The German experts made their contributions to the Workshop in German, but here we make them 129