Explaining the Democratic Anchorage of Governance Networks

Advances in understanding the democratic anchorage of governance networks require carefully designed and contextually grounded empirical analysis that take into account contextual factors. The article uses a conjectural framework to study the impact of the national democratic milieu on the relationship between network governance and representative institutions in four European countries: the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The article shows that the distinction between majoritarian and consensus democracy as well as the varying strength of voluntary associations are important contextual factors that help explain cross-national differences in the relationship between governance networks and representative institutions. We conclude that a context of weak associationalism in majoritarian democracies facilitates the instrumentalization of networks by government actors (United Kingdom), whereas a more complementary role of governance networks prevails in consensus democracies (Switzerland). However, in consensus democracies characterized by a context of strong associationalism (the Netherlands and Denmark), the spread of governance networks in public policy making is likely to lead to more substantial transformations of the democratic processes. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2753/ATP1084-1806330100 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-56043 Published Version Originally published at: Skelcher, C; Klijn, E H; Kübler, D; Sorensen, E; Sullivan, H (2011). Explaining the Democratic Anchorage of Governance Networks. Administrative Theory and Praxis, 33(1):7-38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2753/ATP1084-1806330100 Explaining the Democratic Anchorage of Governance Networks Evidence from Four European Countries Chris Skelcher University of Birmingham Erik-Hans Klijn Erasmus University Rotterdam Daniel Kübler University of Zurich Eva Sørensen Roskilde University Helen Sullivan University of Birmingham