Due to the striking distance between citizens and politicians within their communities, the local level offers the best possibilities for political participation. However, protests such as “Stuttgart 21” suggest that the crisis of representative democracy has now reached the local level and that local political elites more and more leave local citizens behind. Whether such alienation between citizens and political elites can be demonstrated is analysed on the basis of a German survey of over 12,000 citizens and 720 local politicians in 28 municipalities. There are significant local differences in the pattern of relations between citizens and politicians. A clear pattern of alienation between citizens and politicians can, however, not be determined.
