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Vital Democracy outlines a theory of democracy in action, based on
four elementary forms of democracy--pendulum, consensus, voter and
participatory democracy--that are thoroughly analyzed, compared and
related to both the literature and the real world of democracy.
Just like a few primary colors produce an array of shades, a few
basic models of democracy appear, the author argues, to constitute
a wide range of democratic variants in real life.
Focusing on tried and tested democratic institutions, Frank
Hendriks shows that the four models of democracy--with their
divergent patterns of leadership, citizenship and governance, their
inherent strengths and weaknesses--are never purely instantiated.
He argues that wherever democracy is practiced with some level of
success, it is always as hybrid democracy, thereby challenging
those democratic reformers and theorists that have inspired the
quest for democratic purity.
Vital Democracy builds on Arend Lijphart's well-known work which
distinguishes between majoritarian and consensual democratic
countries but also goes well beyond it, urging attention to
non-national, non-formal, and non-representative expressions of
democracy as well.
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."
This book demonstrates both successes and failures in attempts to
get closer to the ideal of good urban governance in cities in
North-America, Europe, and Asia. It presents a value menu and
deliberately does not come up with "one best way" for improving
urban governance. Good urban governance is presented as a balancing
act, an interplay between government, business and civil society in
which the core values need careful and timely attention. The
authors address questions such as "What is deemed "good" in urban
governance, and how is it being searched for?", and "What
(re)configurations of interactions between government, private
sector and civil society are evolving, and to what results?".
Rethinking Democratic Innovation takes a fresh look at diverging
visions of improving democratic governance and asks whether these
existing tensions could be made productive. Could different visions
of democratic revitalisation complement and correct each other in
ways that are good for democracy? Is it conceivable that combined
approaches address a larger part of the democratic challenge, while
isolated approaches, centralizing deliberative or plebiscitary
democracy, are confined to more limited areas of concern? This book
ultimately provides an affirmative answer, outlining the scope for
hybrid democratic innovations that thrive on exploiting, not
eliminating, tensions between diverging visions of improved
democracy. Supplementing democratic theory with a cultural
perspective, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of
plans and methods geared toward improving democratic governance.
Revisiting Mary Douglas's seminal take on culture as pollution
reduction, processes of democratic innovation are understood as
instances of cultural cleaning in public governance. The book
recognizes that democratic cleaning will never be finished but can
be done in ways that are more productive. Reflecting on varieties
of hybrid democratic innovation - deliberative referendums,
participatory budgeting-new style, and more - the author posits
that more versatile, connective, and embedded innovations stand a
better chance of high performance on a broader spectrum than
democratic innovations falling short of these qualities.
The Oxford Handbook of Local and Regional Democracy in Europe
analyses the state of play of democracy at the subnational level in
the 27 member states of the EU plus Norway and Switzerland. It
places subnational democracy in the context of the distinctive
Anglo, the French, the German, and Scandinavian state traditions in
Europe asking to what extent these are still relevant today. The
Handbook adapts Lijphart's theory of democracy and applies it to
the subnational levels in all the country chapters. A key
theoretical issue is whether subnational (regional and local)
democracy is derived from national democracy or whether it is
legitimate in its own right. Besides these theoretical concerns it
focuses on the practice of democracy: the roles of political
parties and interest groups and also how subnational political
institutions relate to the ordinary citizen. This can take the form
of local referendums or other mechanisms of participation. The
Handbook reveals a wide variety of practices across Europe in this
regard. Local financial systems also reveal a great variety.
Finally, each chapter examines the challenges facing subnational
democracy but also the opportunities available to them to enhance
their democratic systems. Among the challenges identified are:
Europeanization, globalization, but also citizens disaffection and
switch-off from politics. Some countries have confronted these
challenges more successfully than others but all countries face
them. An important aspect of the Handbook is the inclusion of all
the countries of East and Central Europe plus Cyprus and Malta, who
joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. This is the first time they have
been examined alongside the countries of Western Europe from the
angle of subnational democracy.
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