Arthur Edwards

Branding the City: The Democratic Legitimacy of a New Mode of Governance

Place branding has been used to influence ideas concerning communities and districts, especially in regeneration programmes. This article approaches branding as a new governance strategy for managing perceptions. Considering the popular criticism that branding is a form of spin that prevents the public from gaining a proper understanding of their government’s policies, this article focuses on the democratic legitimacy of branding in urban governance. The branding of two urban communities in the Netherlands is examined empirically in terms of input legitimacy, throughput legitimacy and output legitimacy. The research shows how the democratic legitimacy of branding varies in the two cases. In one case, branding largely excluded citizens, whereas in the other case there was limited citizen participation. The article indicates that, although branding can potentially be a participatory process in which the feelings and emotions of citizens are included, this potential is not always fully realised in practice.

Social media monitoring: Responsive governance in the shadow of surveillance?

Abstract Social media monitoring is gradually becoming a common practice in public organizations in the Netherlands. The main purposes of social media monitoring are strategic control and responsiveness. Social media monitoring poses normative questions in terms of transparency, accountability and privacy. We investigate practices of social media monitoring in four Dutch public organizations. Policy departments seem to be more strongly orientated towards monitoring, whereas organizations involved in policy implementation seem to be more inclined to progress to webcare. The paper argues for more transparency on social media monitoring.

Governance and the democratic deficit: Assessing the democratic legitimacy of governance practices

Contents: Theoretical Framework: Governance and the democratic deficit: introduction, Victor Bekkers, Geske Dijkstra, Arthur Edwards and Menno Fenger The Governance Concept in Public Administration, Menno Fenger and Victor Bekkers Legitimacy and Democracy: a Conceptual Framework for Assessing Governance Practices, Victor Bekkers and Arthur Edwards The idea of democracy in the 18th century, Koen Stapelbroek. Governance at a Distance and Market Governance: Governance, Democracy and the European Modernization Agenda: a Comparison of Different Policy Initiatives, Victor Bekkers, Menno Fenger and Evelien Korteland Police, policing and governance in The Netherlands and in the United Kingdom, Arie van Sluis and Lex Cachet The Accountability of Professionals in Social Policy: or Why Governance is Multi-Focal and Democracy is Multi-Local, Peter Hupe and Michael Hill. Network Governance and Societal Self-Governance: The legitimacy of the Rotterdam integrated public safety program, Peter Marks Embedding Deliberative Democracy: Local Environmental Forums in The Netherlands and the United States, Arthur Edwards The Limits of Donor-Induced Participation: an Analysis of a Participatory Development Program in Mozambique, Geske Dijkstra and Lieve Lodewyckx. Multi-Level Governance: Democratic Legitimacy of Inter-Municipal and Regional Governance, Jose Manuel Ruano de la Fuente and Linze Schaap Democratic legitimacy of economic governance: the case of the European and Monetary Union, Frans van Nispen and Johan Posseth The OMC and the quest for democratic legitimization: the case of the European employment strategy, Patty Zandstra Supranational governance and the challenge of democracy: the IMF and the World Bank, Geske Dijkstra. Conclusions: Governance and the democratic deficit: an evaluation, Victor Bekkers, Geske Dijkstra, Arthur Edwards and Menno Fenger. Index.

New Media, Micromobilization, and Political Agenda Setting: Crossover Effects in Political Mobilization and Media Usage

In November 2007, Dutch secondary school students revolted against a requirement known as the “1040-hour norm.” New Web technologies, like instant messaging, YouTube, and social networking sites, played an important role in the mobilization effort. In this article, the authors argue that these technologies facilitate a shift toward micromobilization by individuals and small groups. In this “1040-hour norm” case study, the authors analyze how the course of the political agenda-setting process is being transformed through the interplay between processes of meso- and micromobilization, and through new micro-to-mass media crossover effects. When supported by micromedia, the effects of micromobilization can create strategic surprises for traditional intermediary organizations and policymakers.

Scientific expertise and policy-making: the intermediary role of the public sphere

The public sphere is a common place in which members of society meet to discuss matters of mutual interest. It is as tempting to scientists as a jar of honey is to bees. This is an important role for scientists. To be accountable for possible implications of research must not be the exception: it should be part of the standard repertoire according to which democratic control is maintained in the public sphere. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

The accountability of power: Democracy and governance in modern times

In modern governing, a variety of actors in the public domain daily make decisions with consequences for the common good, but how these actors are held accountable to political representatives is not always clear. While representative democracy in most societies still functions as the traditional standard, deficits in democratic control are perceived. There is an exercise of power-without-corresponding-representation . At the same time modern citizens appear hard to engage in politics. Representation-without-corresponding-participation also appears. We address this dual problem, one of accountability and one of legitimacy, in terms of political theory. Various strategies are explored, indicating that some of them contribute to bringing democracy up to date more than others. In particular, it seems fundamental to rethink contemporary democracy by connecting it with the multi-dimensional character of governance. Functional participation by modern citizens can enhance the legitimacy of the exercise of power by making the latter accountable in a multi-local way.

Micro‐Mobilization, Social Media and Coping Strategies: Some Dutch Experiences

New social network technology provides individuals and small groups with powerful resources for rapid political mobilization. Such mobilization can create strategic surprises for policy-makers. Two cases of Web 2.0 driven micro-mobilization processes and one case of Web 1.0 driven micro-mobilization process are considered. In these cases policy-makers were taken by surprise because their repertoires of action were focused primarily on official arrangements of consultation and on the news coverage by traditional media. As a result, micro-mobilization may confront traditional intermediary organizations and policy-makers with rather ‘uncontrolled’ demands for change. These demands may act as ‘focusing events’ that challenge the legitimacy of public organizations, policy programmes and existing consultation and negotiation patterns. Governments need to respond to these focusing events and the paper ends by discussing some coping strategies governments may need to deploy.

Webcare in public services: Deliver better with less?

Social media monitoring and webcare are gradually becoming common practice in public organizations in the Netherlands. This chapter focuses on webcare, i.e. the act of engaging in online communication with citizens to address client feedback. We investigate four cases of webcare by Dutch public organizations. The main goal of webcare is to gain a better insight into relevant sentiments within target groups. Reputation management and anticipation of clients’ questions and needs prevail in this endeavour. Improvement of information provision and service delivery on the basis of citizens’ feedback are other important motives. In some of our cases, signs of co-production are visible. However, in none of the cases are the impacts of webcare systematically monitored.

Tensions and New Connections between Participatory and Representative Democracy in Local Governance

Since the beginning of the 1990s, local authorities in many European countries have introduced new participatory forms of policy-making in an attempt to reverse perceived downward trends in political participation (Daemen and Schaap 2000; Akkerman, Hajer and Grin 2004; Zittel and Fuchs 2007). Such initiatives are marked by inherent tensions. The new arrangements should be set-up in such a way that they can address the alleged crisis of legitimacy in local democracy. This implies that they should provide citizens with enough scope for effective participation. On the other hand, it would be unusual for political elites to endorse reform strategies that they perceive as threatening their own ‘political primacy’. For example, experiences with ‘interactive governance’ in the Netherlands indicate that politicians find it difficult to adapt to this type of participatory arrangement and to invent new constructive political roles (Klijn and Koppenjan 2000; Edelenbos 2005). This chapter addresses one of the ‘puzzles’ of local democratic reform: tensions between representative and participatory democracy (see Chapter 1 of this volume). The purpose of this chapter is to explore these tensions within different national institutional contexts and to ascertain how a new balance can be found between these two ideals and forms of democracy.

Contested knowledge in Dutch climate change policy

textabstractIn dealing with wicked problems, policymakers increasingly are confronted with three competing ‘knowledge claims’: the notion of evidence-based policy, alternative ‘commons knowledge’ created by citizens, and ‘fact-free’ politics. Consequently, the knowledge base for dealing with wicked problems is becoming increasingly contested. This paper analyses the ways in which these three competing knowledge claims interact, and the consequences of their interaction, through a case study of the dynamics of knowledge claims in Dutch climate policy. The paper concludes that the quest for evidence-based policy may constitute an impediment to progress in finding common ground in practical policies.