Benz (Arthur), Papadopoulos (Ioannis) — Governance and Democracy. Comparing National, European and International Experiences — Londres, Routledge, 2006

For the first time, this new collection brings together country specialists, researchers on the European Union, and leading international relations scholars to tackle a crucial question : how compatible are todays new patterns of policy networks and multi-level governance with democratic standards ?

This important question is attracting attention both in political science and in political practices. In political science, the question is mainly dealt with in separated sub-disciplines, which focus on different levels of politics. So far, no serious exchange has actually taken place between authors working on these different levels. The editors of this book both specialists of network and multi-level governance show that although the issue is raised differently in the institutional settings of the national state, the European Union, or transnational governance, excellent insights can be gained by comparison across these settings.

This major new contribution includes cutting edge work from junior scholars alongside chapters by leading specialists of governance such as Guy Peters, Jon Pierre, Philippe C. Schmitter and Thomas Risse. It also contains a collection of new case studies, theoretical conceptualisations and normative proposals for solutions dealing with the issue of democratic deficits, which all give the reader a better understanding of the most crucial problems and perspectives of democracy in different patterns of "governance" beyond conventional government approaches.

This is a valuable book for policy analysts, students of the European Union and international relations, and all students in social and political science.

Chapter 1 (Arthur Benz and Yannis Papadopoulos)
Governance and Democracy: Concepts and Key Issues

Chapter 2 (B. Guy Peters and Jon Pierre)
Governance, Accountability and Democratic Legitimacy

Chapter 3 (Katrin Auel)
Multilevel Governance, Regional Policy and Democratic Legitimacy in Germany

Chapter 4 (Anne-France Taiclet)
Governance, Expertise and Competitive Politics. The Case of Territorial Development Policies in France

Chapter 5 (Herman van Gunsteren)
Resilience through Governance with Democracy

Chapter 6 (Arthur Benz)
Policy-Making and Accountability in EU Multilevel Governance

Chapter 7 (Stijn Smismans)
The Legitimacy of Functional Participation in European Risk Regulation: A Case Study of Occupational Health and Safety

Chapter 8 (Christine Neuhold)
European Governance by Committees. The Implications of Comitology on the Democratic Arena

Chapter 9 (Philippe C. Schmitter)
Governance in the European Union: A Viable Mechanism for Future Legitimation?

Chapter 10 (Thomas Risse)
Transnational Governance and Legitimacy

Chapter 11 (Klaus Dieter Wolf)
Private Actors and the Legitimacy of Governance Beyond the State. Conceptional Outlines and Empirical Explorations

Chapter 12 (Tanja Brühl)
The Privatization of Governance Systems: On the Legitimacy of International Environmental Policy

Chapter 13 (Rob Jenkins)
Accountability and the WTO Dispute-Settlement System

Chapter 14 (Arthur Benz and Yannis Papadopoulos)
Actors, Institutions and Democratic Governance: Comparing Across Levels

Arthur Benz is Professor of Political Science at the FernUniversität, Hagen, Germany.

Yannis Papadopoulos is Professor of Political Science at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.