the democratic problems and potentials of network governance
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Abstract Governance networks play a central role in the production of public policy. While governance network theorists have discussed and analysed their importance for governance efficiency they have not given the same amount of attention to the democratic implications of governance networks. It is not possible to make a meaningful assessment of the democratic problems and potentials on the basis of a traditional liberal approach to democracy. What is called for is the development of a post-liberal model for the democratic anchorage of governance networks that combines representative democracy with other forms of democratic anchorage.
Keywords
networks; democracy; governance; post-liberal
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or more than a decade, social scientists have widely acknowledged that governance networks play a significant role in the production of public policy. Up until now, governance theorists have primarily focused on the capacity of governance networks to enhance the efficiency of governance. They have undertaken the task of uncovering how, and under what conditions, governance networks are capable of realising their significant governing potentials, and thereby helping to reduce the ungovernability and inefficiency associated with traditional state-driven forms of public governance. Governance networks are claimed to enhance governance efficiency by producing regulations of a more proactive and
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flexible nature (Klijn and Koppenjan, 2000: 114; Kooiman, 2000: 155f.); by increasing the quality of policy decisions (Kooiman, 1993: 4; Scharpf, 1999: 20); by enhancing cooperation and reducing implementation resistance (March and Olsen, 1995: 27ff.; Mayntz, 1991: 17), and by transforming private actors and citizens from the consumers of public services into responsible coproducers of public governance (Sørensen and Torfing, 2003: 614). Some governance theorists are optimistic and claim that these potentials for enhancing governance efficiency can be realised if governance networks are submitted to a skilful metagovernance through attempts at regulating self-regulating networks (Kickert and
european political science: 4 2005 (348 – 357) & 2005 European Consortium for Political Research. 1680-4333/05 $30 www.palgrave-journals.com/eps
Koppenjan, 1997: 40; Kooiman, 1993: 256; Mayntz, 1993: 18; Scharpf, 1994: 40). Others are more pessimistic and argue that governance networks represent risky business, on the grounds that they – like all other forms of governance – are prone to failure, which might reduce governance efficiency (Jessop, 2002: 246). By comparison, governance theorists have displayed little interest in the democratic implications of governance networks, despite the fact that empirical studies indicate that the latter have considerable impact on political decision making (Marin and Mayntz, 1991; Heffen et al., 2000). As argued by a number of governance theorists, it is about time that the question of the democratic problems and potentials of governance networks is placed high on the research agenda (Mayntz, 1999; Pierre
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