Governance and the democratic deficit: An evaluation

In the previous chapters we analyzed what kinds of shifts and modes of governance have occurred in the practice of public administration. These governance patterns can be defined as emerging political orders in which binding public decisions are made; political orders that are no longer organized (exclusively) around the state as ultimate source of authority and that go beyond the jurisdictions of (central) state authorities. Therefore, one may assume that the emergence of these governance practices could produce frictions in relation to their input, throughput and output legitimacy. From the perspective of representative democracy, these governance practices may result in a democratic deficit. The assessment of such a deficit should not only be based on the principles of representative democracy. Other democracy models should also be considered.

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