Evaluating democratic performance: Methodologies for assessing the relationship between network governance and citizens

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mathur, Navdeep; Skelcher, Chris
• 署名单位: University of Birmingham; University of Birmingham
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3352
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2007.00709.x
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 228-237
• 关键词: design

摘要

Network governance can enhance democratic practice by furnishing new routes for actors to deliberate, make, and execute public policy. But it is hindered by a lack of political oversight, limited democratic competence of new organizational forms, and informality of operation. Little research has been conducted on the democratic performance of governance networks, and the methodology is poorly developed. Quality-of-democracy studies of national governmental and political systems offer a starting point. Their criteria-based method is useful in accessing the democratic hardware of formal entities, such as partnerships and hybrids, but it does not enable data to be gathered on democratic software-the informal day-to-day practices of actors in networks. Interpretive approaches offer a way forward. Narrative analysis, qualitative interviews using a criteria-based instrument, and Q-methodology provide routes into democratic software. They enable the researcher to move beyond the analysis of institutional nodes and to understand the democratic performance of the wider governance network.