Governance of Hessian °communities°

Abstract

Community comes from Latin “communis”, which means common, mutual exchange among each other. °Community° is an evolutionarily developed notion 574 like °family° that is a fundamental part of the lifeworld and forms the basis for implementing the German democratic °state°. 575 It refers to a group of actors who share a common place of living that is a geographically defined political entity. Actors who adopt a certain notion of °community° are called citizens. As a manifestation of the more comprehensive lifeworld, °community° actors who have adopted a shared °community° notion have a specific identity, language, (micro-) culture, and tradition. The most usual type of °community° notions are referred to by actors as municipality, city, town, suburb, etc. Its ‘Boundaries NR ’ are geographically exactly defined, which enables citizens to identify with their notion and differentiate themselves from other neighbouring °communities°. 576 °Community° notions resolve local issues and problems and thus facilitate the creation and implementation of higher layers of recursion. In this case, the °community° notion refers to a German city or town with less than five thousand inhabitants somewhere in the state of Hesse.