Public–Private Partnerships in Urban Regeneration: Democratic Legitimacy and its Relation with Performance and Trust

Public-private entities set up specifically to manage and implement urban regeneration projects have been observed across several nations. In these urban regeneration partnerships, public and private partners often work together to improve languishing neighbourhoods. One of the core ideas driving the establishment of these partnerships is that, in order to more effectively tackle the challenging regeneration process, these organisations should function at arm's length from the political institutions that oversee them.

A specific question concerning these partnerships is how representative mechanisms work and how the partnership process is linked to traditional representative bodies or in other ways is connected to principles of democratic legitimacy. This paper explores the so-called democratic legitimacy of urban regeneration companies, as a form of public–private partnership, in more detail. It makes a distinction between three types of democratic legitimacy: accountability, voice, and due deliberation. Using material from a survey among managers of urban regeneration companies (URCs) in The Netherlands, this paper examines the impact of these three forms of democratic legitimacy on outcomes and trust of these URCs.

The results show a fairly strong correlation between some criteria of democratic legitimacy, especially due deliberation on the one hand and performance and trust on the other hand.     

Citizen Advisory Committees: A Tool to Remedy the Shortcomings of the Contingent Valuation Method Within the System of Multi-Level Governance

The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is an economic analysis tool used to measure the utility of producing of public goods, based upon individual’s declared preferences. The public decision-maker is thus able to arbitrate between the expenditure to be made. The approach has been deployed in a centralist conceptual plan, leaving little room for citizens in the decision-making process and it has been undermined by the rise in power, notably in Europe, of multi-level governance. The decision-maker is no longer alone in this process and public decision-making must operate on the basis of common views adopted by various levels of government that should also establish much stronger links with the citizen-users of public goods. This article analyzes the operational impact of Citizen Advisory Committees (CAC) as participative tools of CVM that result in an effective cooperation between the various public actors and the civil society in public decision-making.     

The Road to Good Governance: Via the Path Less Accountable? The Effectiveness of Fiscal Accountability in Liberia

Accountability mechanisms are touted as a path to “good governance.” But are accountability mechanisms a sure route to achieving the objectives of “good governance”? Limited case studies have offered inconsistent evidence (Blair, 2000 Blair, H. 2000. Participation and accountability at the periphery: Democratic local governance in sex countries. World Development, 28(1): 21–29. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Charlick, 2001 Charlick, R.B. 2001. Popular participation and local government reform.. Public Administration and Development, 21: 149–157. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Devas &; Grant, 2003 Devas, N. and Grant, U. 2003. Local government decision-making-citizen participation and local accountability: Some evidence from Kenya and Uganda. Public Administration and Development, 23: 307–316. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). But empirical evidence of the relationships among principles of good governance—high citizen participation, low levels of corruption, high-quality service delivery—and accountability mechanisms is lacking. We examine the effectiveness of accountability mechanisms in Liberia and find relationships between measures of county level fiscal accountability and measures of good governance do not always produce expected results, making fiscal accountability mechanisms no guarantee for achieving goals of good governance.     

Gender tropes and colonial discourses in the turbulence of global finance

This article seeks to prick the pretension of neutrality and objectivity in finance as a knowledge construct and regime of power. It does this by focusing on how constructions of risk, the deployment of ‘otherizing’ discourses and, importantly, the mobilization of gender and colonial tropes assisted(s) not only in the normalization of financial practices but also the imperial order of Western-derived financial governance institutions as well.     

The G20's role in legitimating global capitalism: beyond crisis diplomacy?

The rising profile of the G20 in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis has led to various forms of concern about the legitimacy of this forum. While debates about the legitimacy of the G20 are important and ongoing, they overlook the important observation that the G20 is also attempting to perform a key role in legitimating global capitalism. This role of legitimating global capitalism emphasises the importance of the G20 to act, and be seen to act, to normalise global capitalism, to strengthen global economic governance, and also facilitate a political consensus with regard to key policy issues. This essay critically examines the role that the G20 plays in legitimating global capitalism and contends that the G20 is not just a technical forum of international policy-making but also a political forum for creating and performing visible responses to problems which are seen to be socially responsive.     

Can Democratic Governance Be Achieved in Egypt?

This article contributes to our understanding of whether democratic governance can be achieved in post-revolution Egypt. It explores the status of three key pillars of democratic governance in the context of the January 2011 People’s Revolution and subsequent political developments through August 2013: (1) inclusive participation, (2) responsive institutions, and (3) adherence to international practices and principles. Available evidence suggests that none of the democratic governance pillars has been realized so far as a result of political instability in Egypt. The article argues that the current political environment is not favorable to achieving democratic governance in Egypt.     

The presidential dynamics of leadership decline in contemporary British politics: the illustrative case of Tony Blair

The presidential analogy has provided many explanatory insights into the contemporary development of the British premiership. Nevertheless, the usage of this analytical device is almost invariably confined to the establishment and consolidation of leadership. This article demonstrates that the presidential dimension has comparable utility in accounting for the erosion and decline of leadership. In examining the Blair premiership in relation to three signature themes of the American presidency – public outreach, personalized leadership, and democratic disjunction – the analysis reveals a set of dynamics that not only provides a vehicle for political opposition but largely predetermines the nature and formulation of that critique.     

Metaphors of Governance in Central and Eastern Europe: Multi-level,Asymmetrical or Variable Geometry?

Theories of multi-level and network governance have been applied to changes derived from processes of Europeanisation. These theories reflect vertical and horizontal interdependencies which may erode the power of the central state vis-à-vis supra-national and regional layers of governance. This paper suggests that through the enlargement process institutional adaptation has been uneven and led to the creation of a democratic deficit. It suggests that metaphors of asymmetry or variable geometry better reflect the reality of fluidity and dynamism in the distribution of powers at differing territorial levels in accession states.     

Does democratic local governance facilitate local economic development? Evidence from Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

This paper tests whether the improvement of democratic local governance (DLG) positively impacts local economic development (LED). Based on a nationally representative citizen perception survey of 3,024 households across 56 Union Parishads (UPs) in Bangladesh, the results suggest that, although the UP governance program (UPGP) has improved the administrative governance of UPs, functional governance involving citizens remains weak. Thus, due to partial improvement of DLG, UPGP does not appear to have a significant impact on the overall local economic development and service delivery of UPs. A significant gap can be seen to exist between the claims of UPs and the perceptions of citizens around UPs’ governance performance, which may result from the poor awareness building structures of the UPGP. However, our results suggest that providing training to UP officials can partially offset the shortfalls of DLG in its pursuit of LED.     

New media and governance in conflict

The role of new media in shaping the interactions of formal and informal leaders with their audiences is frequently misunderstood and often narrowly focussed on electoral processes and political competition. By weaving together strands of scholarship on political communication and political settlement while engaging with concepts of hybrid governance and leadership more prevalent in the African studies literature, this article takes a different, wider focus. We attempt to knit a framework that challenges normative assumptions on institutional communicative practices and considers the role of power, leadership and communications in both exacerbating and mitigating violent conflict in emerging and consolidating democracies. By bringing together disparate strands of scholarship that are rarely in dialogue, we question a characterisation that contrasts vertical mainstream media with more horizontal and inclusive social media, arguing that a more nuanced view of the political significance of these spaces is required, one that highlights their interplay and blurs the boundaries between online and offline. In doing so, the article places power at the centre of analysis to examine how entrenched relations of patronage can be left unscathed, transformed or even reinforced by networked forms of communication.