Science has been ubiquitous in public decision making in the United States in the 1980s and promises to serve no less a role in the decade and new century ahead. Government actions are justified on the basis of scientific evidence in an overwhelming array of issue areas. Legislating health warnings on cigarette packaging in the 1960s, banning the use of cyclamates, phasing down the lead content of gasoline in the 1970s, and denying construction permits for projects in ecologically sensitive locations are just a few of the multitudinous ways that our public agencies at various levels of government have availed of scientific expertise to assist in the making of public policy throughout the recent decades. Relying on science to make decisions or to resolve disputes is a political tactic, however, and one that threatens to subvert democratic decision making.

Scholars of politics are comfortable theorizing about the parliamentary process and individual political parties, but they are often guilty of ignoring the role of individual citizens except through opinion polls and voting statistics. Even at the local level, the main focus of political theorists has traditionally been on formal systems of government usually lauding representative democracy as the standard for Western government while the importance of participatory action at a local level has been vastly underestimated. Correcting this imbalance, the renowned political scholars who contribute to this volume outline both the theory and practice of so-called "extra-formal democracy," wherein societal governance is more accurately described as a "network activity" and citizens, politicians, public administrators and other professionals act together on issues or problems that are defined as public. This new and complex form of democracy explored here in three unique settings: the United States, the Netherlands, and Denmark is increasingly regarded as an achievable vision for a multi-faceted theory of government."