Governance and Democracy - KATARSIS Survey Paper

Abstract

Coordination: Bernhard Leubolt, Andreas Novy, Barbara Beinstein. Novy, Barbara Beinstein. With the collaboration of: Isabel André, Len Arthur, Jean-Marc Fontan, Laurent Fraisse, Marisol Garcia, Denis Harrisson, Richard Kimberlee, Juan-Luis Klein, Benoît Lévesque, Diana MacCallum, Marc Pradel, Albert Terrones, Serena Vicari, Louis Wassenhovern, Jiri Winkler KATARSIS ProjectAlthough the welfare state is currently being transformed, it continues to exist in new forms. These vary in different cities and regions. They have in common to involve citizenry in micro-participation, while managing macro-participation by the elite. Especially community-based management and participatory democracy turn out to be concepts for socially innovative strategies which are fundamentally Janus-faced, as they tend to be strategically selective – including some actors, while excluding others. Critical social movements may be co-opted into the state and lose their potential to contest political decision. But bottom-up participation can also be a step towards the proposed utopia of democratic governance