Ebook: Governance and the Democratic Deficit: Assessing the Democratic Legitimacy of Governance Practices

It is widely acknowledged that we are witnessing a major transformation of public policymaking, a transformation which has been labeled as a change from 'government' to 'governance'. Governance is used to describe policymaking and implementation without a central authority in a non-hierarchical, network like structure through negotiation and cooperation between public and private actors at one or across different political levels. In particular, the volume: combines empirical analysis and normative assessment of governance practices; provides a systematic approach based on a framework for assessing democracy; and addresses different modes of governance at the local/regional, national, European and international levels. This comprehensive volume assesses the alleged 'democratic deficit' of these new governance practices and as such is ideally suited to courses on public administration.