Collaborative governance and irruption in Northern Basque Country: an irruptive governance model?

Abstract

The literature on democratic innovations is moving towards an agenda that recovers the weight of protest and social movements in democratic deepening. Reinforcing this approach, this text shows an experience in which institutional and social movement actors share a common agreement based on principles of collaborative governance strategy for territorial development. Its failure nurtures mutual trust between the two to work in a contentious dynamic that seeks institutional recognition of the territory. These two elements, an agreement based on principles and mutual trust, are at the basis of a nebula of interactions between local institutions and social movements which, through a variable geometry of agreements and disagreements, make up a scenario of irruptive governance that is allowing the democratic embeddedness and the democratic deepening of democratic driven governance dynamics in The North Basque Country.