Is the âe~golden ageâe(tm) of democracy really over due to the pressures of globalisation and the erosion of the nation state?

Within this book, Heinelt seeks to address the democratic deficit in political systems linked to limited Citizen Participation reflecting on the notion of democracy and participatory governance and how they relate to each other. Exploring democracy beyond the governmental structures and focusing on participatory governance in particular this book demonstrates that common notions of democracy have to be re-conceptualised without neglecting its key ideas. By arguing that it is a political task to turn the inevitability of governance into a participatory form, Heinelt develops a model of different âe~worlds of democratic actionsâe(tm) which shows that democratic political systems have to be considered as a complex and broad web of various forms of interest articulation and intermediation as well as decision-making.

Making an important contribution to the âe~third transformation of democracyâe(tm), this book will be of interest to students and scholars of governance, democracy, policymaking & European studies.