Preface of the Editors Introduction 1. Governance and Democracy: Concepts and Key Issues Part I. Governance in the Nation State 2. Governance, Accountability and Democratic Legitimacy 3. Multilevel Governance, Regional Policy and Democratic Legitimacy in Germany 4. Governance, Expertise and Competitive Politics. The Case of Territorial Development Policies in France 5. Resilience through Governance with Democracy Part II. Governance at the European Level 6. Policy-Making and Accountability in EU Multilevel Governance 7. The Legitimacy of Functional Participation in European Risk Regulation: A Case Study of Occupational Health and Safety 8. European Governance by Committees. The Implications of Comitology on the Democratic Arena 9. Governance in the European Union: A Viable Mechanism for Future Legitimation? Part III. Governance at the Transnational Level 10. Transnational Governance and Legitimacy 11. Private Actors and the Legitimacy of Governance Beyond the State. Conceptional Outlines and Empirical Explorations 12. The Privatization of Governance Systems: On the Legitimacy of International Environmental Policy 13. Accountability and the WTO Dispute-Settlement System Conclusion 14. Actors, Institutions and Democratic Governance: Comparing Across Levels List of Contributors

Arthur Benz, Ioannis Papadopoulos

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 today's 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.