Deliberative democracy in local governance: the impact of institutional design on legitimacy

Deliberative democracy is expected to increase legitimacy and effectiveness of democratic governance. In recent years, a growing body of research has reported on different instances of participatory innovations across the globe. Nevertheless, quantitative evidence on the determinants of legitimate and effective deliberative procedures is still scarce. Examining parents’ participation in school governance in Switzerland, this article explores the effect of the design of deliberative institutions on perceptions of legitimacy and effectiveness. Based on an original survey of 312 parent councils of public primary schools in Switzerland, the results of our analysis corroborate theoretical expectations about the impact of institutional design on legitimacy and effectiveness of deliberative procedures: More authority granted to parent councils clearly enhances the output-legitimacy of these bodies.     

SCALE AND POLICY IMPACT IN PARTICIPATORY‐DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY: LESSONS FROM A MULTI‐LEVEL PROCESS

This article addresses two interrelated critiques of participatory‐deliberative democratic institutions: that they are beset by problems of scale and that they achieve weak policy impact. This article tests these criticisms through the case of the UK Sustainable Communities Act (SCA), a multi‐level process that is relatively strongly institutionalized. The evidence lends qualified support to these critiques. The article differentiates between contextual factors, related to the attempt to institutionalize participatory‐deliberative processes within existing socioeconomic and political structures, and design factors to do with institutional and process design. The case of the SCA calls for caution about the claim that multi‐level participatory‐deliberative processes can overcome problems of scale and policy impact, but the question remains open. The article ends by suggesting that expectations of direct policy impact might be too high. Rather than determinants of policy, multi‐level participatory‐deliberative processes might function best as agenda‐setters.     

Governance is where you find it

The concept of governance is used frequently and in a variety of different ways. This article discusses Mark Bevir’s use of an interpretative approach to governance and its implications for understanding better how we govern. This approach has particular relevance to democratic forms of governance, and to the use of deliberative and direct forms of democracy.     

Theory building: the debate between modernist and interpretive social science in the pursuit of democratic governance

Bevir’s Democratic Governance advances a new theory of governance. The theory rejects reliance on bureaucracy, market and community on the one hand, and strives to embrace a participatory and deliberative rationality to achieve democratic governance on the other. The fundamental question remains: in what ways can his theory ease the tension and bridge the gap between democracy and bureaucracy? If readers are interested in the development of a more coherent theory on public administration or prefer a more balanced perspective in the study of democratic governance, this book serves as a good start, though it may not be able to give you the ultimate answer.     

Democratic Culture and Participatory Local Governance in Bangladesh

The government of Bangladesh has introduced several initiatives seeking to develop participatory governance at the local level in order to maximise the outcomes of aid-assisted development projects. This article examines the impact of these initiatives and demonstrates that participatory local governance faces a number of challenges in Bangladesh, in particular, absence of democratic culture and tradition and disengagement of citizens, asymmetric distribution of patronage and weak institutions. In theory, political elites and bureaucrats in Bangladesh advocate democracy, accountability and local-level participation, but in practice, they have an affinity for power and centralised authority. Their reform initiatives seem half-hearted and disjointed restricting the growth of democratic culture and participatory local governance at the local level in Bangladesh.     

Pedagogy and deliberative democracy: insights from recent experiments in the United Kingdom

A growing body of research suggests the existence of a disconnection between citizens, politicians and representative politics in advanced industrial democracies. This has led to a literature on the emergence of post-democratic or post-representative politics that connects to a parallel seam of scholarship on the capacity of deliberative democratic innovations to ‘close the gap’. This latter body of work has delivered major insights in terms of democratic design in ways that traverse ‘politics as theory’ and ‘politics as practice’. And yet the main argument of this article is that this seam of scholarship has generally failed to explore the existence of numerous pedagogical relationships that exist within the very fibre of deliberative processes. As such, the core contribution of this article focuses around the explication of a ‘pedagogical pyramid’ that applies a micro-political lens to deliberative processes. This theoretical contribution is empirically assessed with reference to a recent project that sought to test different citizen assembly pilots around plans for English regional devolution. The proposition being tested is that a better understanding of relational pedagogy within innovations is vital, not just to increase levels of knowledge, but also to build the capacity, confidence and contribution of democratically active citizens.     

Inclusive local governance: normative proposals and political practices

This article specifies the conditions that a democratic expansion process would require in order to be inclusive in the face of complex forms of inequality. The dialogue between the qualitative analysis of an inclusive local governance experience initiated in Ottawa in 2004 and proposals to integrate the egalitarian perspective of critical deliberative theory and intersectionality theories throws up two elements that facilitate inclusive deliberative governance: (1) the incorporation of the intersectional perspective into the design and running of local governance apparatuses and (2) the implementation of enclave deliberation.     

Constituting 'the public' in public participation

The emphasis on public participation in contemporary policy discourse has prompted the development of a wide range of forums within which dialogue takes place between citizens and officials. Often such initiatives are intended to contribute to objectives relating to social exclusion and democratic renewal. The question of ‘who takes part’ within such forums is, then, critical to an understanding of how far new types of forums can contribute to the delivery of such objectives. This article draws on early findings of research conducted as part of the ESRC Democracy and Participation Programme. It addresses three questions: ‘How do public bodies define or constitute the public that they wish to engage in dialogue?’; ‘What notions of representation or representativeness do participants and public officials bring to the idea of legitimate membership of such forums?’; and ‘How do deliberative forums contribute to, or help ameliorate, processes of social inclusion and exclusion?’     

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND POLITICAL RATIONALITIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE IN THE NETHERLANDS

Multi‐level governance, network governance, and, more recently, experimentalist governance are important analytical frameworks through which to understand democratic governance in the EU. However, these analytical frameworks carry normative assumptions that build on functionalist roots and undervalue political dynamics. This can result in a lack of understanding of the challenges that democratic governance faces in practice. This article proposes the analysis of democratic governance from the perspective of multiple political rationalities to correct such assumptions. It analyses the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands as a paradigmatic case study by showing how governmental, instrumental, and deliberative rationalities are at work in each of the governance elements that it introduces. The article concludes by discussing the implications of a perspective of multiple political rationalities for the understanding and promotion of democratic governance in practice.     

From Innovation to Convention: Legitimate Citizen Participation in Local Governance

In governance structure legitimacy is required not only of the governing system, local authorities or public organisations but also of other participants, including citizens. The legitimacy cannot be judged either by traditions of representative democracy or by innovative theories of deliberative or participatory democracy. The article analyses scientific publications on citizen participation in local governance. It asks how empirical studies on local sustainable development planning (SDP) and New Public Management (NPM) practices construct legitimate citizen participation. In general, studies on citizen participation have not conceptualised the relations between citizens and power holders as questions of legitimacy. However, the studies approaching citizen participation in the local processes of SDP and NPM include various empirical, theoretical and normative arguments for citizen participation. These arguments recognise, accept and support particular activities, arguments and outcomes of citizen participation, and include and exclude agents and issues. They construct and reflect the definition of legitimacy in the local governance. As constructed by scientific texts, justifications for citizen participation reproduce a discursive structure in which citizen participation becomes marginalised and citizens’ views excluded. The results illustrate that discursive structures of legitimate citizen participation support conventional governing practices and hinder innovative practices in local governance.     

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? RATIONALES AND CHALLENGES FOR NEIGHBOURHOOD GOVERNANCE

Associated with innovation in both democratic practice and service design, neighbourhoods are high on policy agendas across Europe. Drawing upon classic debates about size and devolution, the article identifies four distinct rationales for neighbourhood governance: civic, social, political and economic. In England, the ‘new localism’ agenda gets near to developing a comprehensive case for neighbourhood governance, drawing upon all four rationales. Options for institutional design are explored with reference to four ideal types: (1) neighbourhood empowerment; (2) neighbourhood partnership; (3) neighbourhood government; (4) and neighbourhood management. Key challenges for neighbourhood governance are analysed in terms of capacity, competence, diversity and equity. The article argues that the classic democracy/capacity trade‐off associated with small units needs to be re‐thought in the context of the ‘new governance’ (multi‐level, multi‐actor and e‐enabled). Rather than confronting one big trade‐off, institutional designers face a series of questions about the underlying purposes and priorities of neighbourhood governance.     

‘Executive ombudsman’ in an American city—a mechanism for handling complaints

Community Politics has been a political strategy of the Liberal Party, now the Liberal Democrats, since 1970. It involves a critique of traditional representational relationships and argues for a participatory democracy based upon deliberation to build consensus out of competing interests. Whilst the associated campaigning techniques have made the third party an important force in local government, this article uses new empirical evidence to assess the success of the strategy in transforming representational relationships and extending popular participation in local government. It is argued that its success in respect of these objectives has been limited, principally because of popular disenchantment with political parties and the inherent tensions and limitations that accompany popular participation in deliberative democratic structures.     

Democracy Transformed? Reforms in Britain and The Netherlands (1990–2010)

This article focuses on democratic reform in Britain and the Netherlands since 1990. The question is whether the UK has become less ‘majoritarian’ and the Netherlands less ‘consensual’, as some have argued. If we look at the formalised institutions of the national system of representative democracy the overall conclusion is that convergence has been rather limited. But, if we extend our analysis to non-formal, sub-national and non-representative democratic institutions also, the picture becomes more nuanced. We also looked at traces of direct democracy. Our analysis shows that both countries have witnessed changes that incline to voter democracy (directly-majoritarian) and participatory democracy (directly-integrative), although the Dutch case exhibits a somewhat stronger tendency to participatory democracy than the British case. A general lesson to be drawn is that thinking in terms of pure types of democracy has become obsolete.     

Participatory Governance: Hope or Danger for Democracy? A Case Study of Local Agenda 21

Participatory governance is a concept that is receiving increasing prominence. However, more empirical research is needed to clarify whether participatory governance is beneficial or detrimental to democracy. The local level is a dynamic field for participatory experiments and, therefore, particularly rewarding for researchers interested in scrutinizing the impacts of participatory governance empirically. In this article, Local Agenda 21 serves as an example to discuss both hypotheses. The study, conducted predominantly in Germany, shows that neither the supporters nor the sceptics of participatory governance are completely right. The findings about Local Agenda 21 demonstrate that this form of participatory governance can improve civic skills and social capital, but has little impact on input-legitimacy and is barely effective, i.e. reaches the goal of enforcing sustainable development only to a limited degree.     

Examining Citizen Participation: Local Participatory Policy Making and Democracy

Citizen participation is usually seen as a vital aspect of democracy. Many theorists claim that citizen participation has positive effects on the quality of democracy. This article examines the probability of these claims for local participatory policymaking projects in two municipalities in the Netherlands. The article focuses on the relations between citizens and government from a citizens' perspective. The findings show that the role of citizens in these projects is limited, serving mainly to provide information on the basis of which the government then makes decisions. Nevertheless, the article argues that citizen involvement has a number of positive effects on democracy: not only do people consequently feel more responsibility for public matters, it increases public engagement, encourages people to listen to a diversity of opinions, and contributes to a higher degree of legitimacy of decisions. One negative effect is that not all relevant groups and interests are represented. The article concludes that for a healthy democracy at the local level, aspects of democratic citizenship are more important than having a direct say in decision-making.     

Why Deliberate? The Encounter Between Deliberation and New Public Managers

A number of organizations in Britain's National Health Service (NHS) have been experimenting with 'deliberative' techniques of citizen involvement, techniques that were designed with democratic imperatives in mind. However, political practices are moulded by their institutional settings and the goals of their proponents, so it is unlikely that they have been left 'pure' following their encounter with public management imperatives.
This paper offers an explanation for the interest in deliberative processes in the NHS by comparing deliberative and public management imperatives, as well as discussing more case-specific motivations, drawing on interviews with health policy actors between May and July 2001. I then use those insights to highlight gaps between the deliberative ideal and deliberative practice, showing what has been gained and what has been lost in the encounter between deliberative democracy and new public managers.     

The Public Governance of Collaborative Spaces: Discourse, Design and Democracy

This article investigates the relationship between democratic practices and the design of institutions operating in collaborative spaces, those policy and spatial domains where multiple public, private and non-profit actors join together to shape, make and implement public policy. Partnerships are organizational manifestations of institutional design for collaboration. They offer flexibility and stakeholder engagement, but are loosely coupled to representative democratic systems. A multi-method research strategy examines the impact of discourses of managerialism, consociationalism and participation on the design of partnerships in two UK localities. Analysing objective measures of democratic performance in partnerships and interpreting the discursive transition from earlier practices in representative democratic institutions we find that institutional designs for collaboration reflect different settlements between discourses, captured in the distinction between club, agency and polity-forming partnership types. The results show how the governance of collaborative spaces is mediated through a dominant set of discursively defined institutional practices.     

DEMOCRATIC SUBJECTIVITIES IN NETWORK GOVERNANCE: A Q METHODOLOGY STUDY OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH PUBLIC MANAGERS

Network forms of governance enable public managers to exercise considerable agency in shaping the institutions through which government interacts with citizens, civil society organizations and business. These network institutions configure democratic legitimacy and accountability in various ways, but little is known about how managers‐as‐designers think about democracy. This Q methodology study identifies five democratic subjectivities. Pragmatists have little concern for democracy. Realists regard networks as one of a number of arenas in which the politics is played out. Adaptors identify the potential for greater inclusiveness. Progressive Optimists think that network governance will fill the gap between the theory and practice of representative democracy, while Radical Optimists focus on its potential for enabling direct dialogue. Institutional design alone is not sufficient to enhance the democratic possibilities of governance networks. The choice of public manager is also salient. Adaptors or, preferably, Progressive or Radical Optimists should be selected for this role.     

A framework for analyzing organizational culture among politicians: Exploring implications for participatory governance schemes

In this article, we develop a theoretical framework for investigating how organizational culture relates to the roles of elected representatives. Based on Douglas's grid and group logic, our framework evaluates two cultural dimensions, negotiability and conflictuality, upon which these roles depend. The negotiability dimension describes elected representatives' roles from a strictly hierarchical and bounded notion of how politics should be handled to a horizontal and inclusive notion. The conflictuality dimension considers politics as confrontation versus a deliberative consensus-oriented way of handling political issues. By investigating a participatory governance measure called “task committees”, we examine how the framework functions empirically. Our analysis shows how different aspects of organizational culture are reflected in councilors' interpretations of and practices related to this interactive participatory governance scheme and illuminates the implications of organizational culture for the use of such schemes.