Patrizia Nanz

The OMC – a deliberative-democratic mode of governance? The cases of employment and pensions 1

The open method of co-ordination’s (OMC’s) emphasis on transparency, democratic participation and learning has led to a particular interest in this governance mechanism from the perspective of deliberative democracy. This article analyses the ‘democratic’ dimension of the OMC from a normative and an empirical perspective. We first present relevant theories of deliberative democracy, from which we derive a list of normative criteria, which we then use to explore the democratic quality of the OMC in the areas of employment and pensions. The empirical analysis reveals that there are important differences in the democratic quality of the OMC between these two areas, but that, ultimately, the OMC (as yet) does not live up to its own democratic ambitions.The open method of co-ordination’s (OMC’s) emphasis on transparency, democratic participation and learning has led to a particular interest in this governance mechanism from the perspective of deliberative democracy. This article analyses the ‘democratic’ dimension of the OMC from a normative and an empirical perspective. We first present relevant theories of deliberative democracy, from which we derive a list of normative criteria, which we then use to explore the democratic quality of the OMC in the areas of employment and pensions. The empirical analysis reveals that there are important differences in the democratic quality of the OMC between these two areas, but that, ultimately, the OMC (as yet) does not live up to its own democratic ambitions.

Emergent Patterns of Civil Society Participation in Global and European Governance

Since the 1990s, the disciplines of European Studies and International Relations have taken a remarkable normative turn. Questions of democratic legitimacy, which, for many years, were marginalized on the agenda, have moved into the focus of scholarly interest. More than a decade after it began, the debate about legitimacy and democracy beyond the nation-state is now becoming mature, increasingly fine-grained and sophisticated (Follesdal 2006; Patomaki and Teivainen 2004). Very few authors would deny that the European Union (EU) and global organizations suffer from a ‘democratic deficit’. Most definitely, they are far from being as democratic as liberal Western nation-states. And while there is widespread agreement on this diagnosis, there is still much controversy over the appropriate remedy. A wide range of options is currently being discussed. They may be provisionally divided into three major clusters: proposals for representative-parliamentary institutions; proposals for new accountability mechanisms; and proposals for enhanced political deliberation. These groups will be briefly discussed.