New Governance, New Democracy?

Abstract

Across the western world there is today a search for new models of democratic governance. Central, regional and local institutions are redesigned. Public service systems are transforming into market-like organizations of service delivery and in many countries there is experimentation with user boards, customer choice, stakeholderism and other new forms of interaction between the public sector and the citizen. Meanwhile, democratic governance looks surprisingly much like the way it did 25 or 50 years ago. Political parties still largely monopolize citizens’ democratic input; elected officials are still held to account in quite traditional ways, and public administration still caters to such traditional objectives as legality, due process, and accountability. The paper reviews the transformation of governance from the vantage point of democratic values. The basic argument of the paper is that western democracies are currently implementing governance reform and administrative reform without much reflection of its democratic ramifications. The problem is exacerbated by the absence of any viable alternative model of democratic governance. Thus, while current reform undercuts the former role of political institutions and elective office, citizens and customers of public services are still left with traditional channels of representation and accountability.