Governing Modern Societies: Towards Participatory Governance

ISBN-13: 9780415496551 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 192 str.

Hubert Heinelt

Opis

Is the ‘golden age’ of democracy really over due to the pressures of globalisation and the erosion of the nation state?

This book explores democracy beyond the governmental structures and focuses on participatory governance in particular. It demonstrates that the way we have learnt to think about democracy has to be changed and the notion of democracy has to be re-conceptualised. Heinelt argues that it is a political task to turn the inevitability of governance into a participatory form and develops a model of different ‘worlds of democratic actions’ which shows that democratic political systems have to be considered as a complex and broad web of various forms of interest articulation and intermediation as well as decision-making. The argument is illustrated throughout with empirical material on EU policymaking.

Making an important contribution to the ‘third transformation of democracy’, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of governance, democracy, policymaking & European studies.

Spis treści

1. Introduction  2. Starting Points and Key Conceptual Considerations  3. Different Sectors of Interest Intermediation and their 'Composition' in Political Systems  4. Achieving Governability: The Case of the EU Structural Funds and EU Environment Policy  5. Reforms and Reform Perspectives of Governance-Arrangements and the Difference of Opinions between 'Discourse Communities'  6. Multi-Level Systems and Flexible Power Geometry  7. Conclusions/Perspectives.  References

O autorze

Hubert Heinelt is currently professor for public administration/public policy and urban studies at the Institute of Political Science at Darmstadt University of Technology. His current research focuses on European integration, EU cohesion policy and on urban studies, as well as on issues of participatory governance.