 The Interactive State: Democratisation from Above?Tjitske Akkerman, Maarten Hajer and John Grin Political Studies, 2004, vol. 52, issue 1, 82-95 Abstract: The work of Robert Putnam has provoked a lively debate on the democratic importance of a robust civil society. Criticism of his work concentrates on the fact that his concept of social capital conceives of the relationship between civil society and government predominantly as a one‐way affair – a strong civil society is good for politics. Taking up this line of argument, an appreciation of political factors is promoted to explain varying patterns of civic engagement. Now that Western governments increasingly initiate and stimulate citizens’ participation in policy‐making, it is becoming even more important to assess the role of the state. Drawing on recent empirical research on local practices in the Netherlands, we examine a Dutch variant of such top‐down participatory arrangements – so‐called ‘interactive policy‐making’. We ask whether, and under what conditions, democratic advances can be expected from top‐down state initiatives. And we develop a theoretical framework for assessing the democratic effects of top‐down participatory initiatives. Squaring the main theoretical criteria with the empirical reality of interactive policy‐making, we conclude that an active state does not necessarily corrode civil society. Date: 2004 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:polstu:v:52:y:2004:i:1:p:82-95 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Political Studies is currently edited by Matthew Festenstein and Martin Smith More articles in Political Studies from Political Studies Association |
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