Demoi-cracy: A Useful Framework for Theorizing the Democratization of Multilevel Governance?

Democracy, ethnoicracy and consociational demoicracy

“…To do so I first proceed to establishing a conceptual link between the literature on consociationalism and a more recent literature on demoicracy (Bellamy, 2017; Besson, 2006; Bohman, 2007; Cheneval, 2011; Cheneval and Nicolaidis, 2017; Cheneval and Schimmelfennig, 2013; Nicolaïdis, 2015). In particular, and in contrast to demoicratic theorists who have argued that demoicracy differs from consociation (Cheneval and Schimmelfennig, 2013: 335; but see Nicolaïdis, 2015: 150, and Hurrelmann and DeBardeleben, 2019), I highlight a number of parallels between these two strands of literature. I shall argue that conceptualizing consociation as a demoicracy opens up new horizons and points at the possibility, under certain conditions, to have a stable consociational demoicracy.…”

“…Notwithstanding these brief passages, in which advocates of demoicracy quote consociationalism but do not really engage with the conceptual linkages between demoicratic and consociational theories, the literature on demoicracy, to the best of my knowledge, does not systematically engage with the literature on consociations. And yet, the parallels are striking (see also Hurrelmann and DeBardeleben, 2019). The next paragraphs show this while clarifying the main concepts of the debate – the demos/demoi vs ‘segments’ in consociational theory – and establishing the conceptual links between them.…”

“…However, the question of stability continues to haunt such a polity. A potential solution is to adopt a weaker variant of demoicracy (Nicolaïdis, 2015: 141; see also Hurrelmann and DeBardeleben, 2019: 300), where a common political demos can coexist with multiple demoi.…”

Does the Multilevel Governance of State Aid Encourage Broadband Diffusion? Evidence from Three European Countries

“…In particular, recent studies have emphasised the rise of regional authorities, following the progressive transfer of authority from centre-level to lower-level jurisdictions (Behnke, Broschek, & Sonnicksen, 2019;Broschek, 2015). Such a trend is expected to facilitate the inclusion of civil society perspectives into the decision-making, thereby enhancing the quality of democracy in the EU (Dolinar, 2010;Hurrelmann & DeBardeleben, 2019). On the other hand, the coordination of multiple actors involved in the policymaking process is likely to generate significant transaction costs that may undermine the accountability and efficiency of policymaking (Newig & Koontz, 2014;Papadopoulos, 2010).…”

“…Previous literature has provided mixed evidence on the effectiveness and efficiency of MLG (Hurrelmann & DeBardeleben, 2019;Milio, 2014;Papadopoulos, 2010). This paper aims to contribute to this debate by understanding the impact of MLG on the implementation of state aid programmes and the diffusion of broadband in the EU.…”