The legitimacy of national representative democracy is under pressure as its institutions face new challenges. The institutions of representative democracy date from the 19th century, but are they fit for the 21st century? Citizens are better educated than before, empowered and better organised. Administrative power has to be shared with other countries, with private parties and local governments, while the national parliament does not control them directly. Moreover, partly influenced by the financial crises, there is a trend towards so-called non-majoritarian institutions: institutions that take important political decisions without a direct mandate from the voter, such as, for instance, the European Central Bank and numerous other independent market authorities and regulators like AFM, NZA and ACM. This raises a series of questions about the vitality of democracy and possible adjustments to it. Can the functioning and legitimacy of democratic institutions be strengthened through greater use of opinion polls, citizens' initiatives, referendums, or even lottery? Are there alternatives to political parties and parliaments?
Connecting character
The vitality of democracy is of eminent social importance. We now know a lot about the development of legitimacy in Western societies. Among citizens, for instance, support for the principle of democracy still appears to be high, but trust in politicians and political parties is low in many countries and among many citizens. Significantly less do we know about the impact of said fragmentation of government power on legitimacy, while this is a crucial development in public administration. Are other ways of speaking on behalf of society possible, such as deliberative forms of democracy, drawing lots or internet opinion polls? Will our country then remain governable? On the basis of what legitimacy do non-majoritarian institutions operate? This involves empirical, descriptive research as well as evaluative and normative questions. There are also important design questions here. What forms of institutional renewal of representative democracy are possible, necessary and desirable? Answering these questions can build on the strong Dutch tradition of comparative political science and of administrative, ethical, historical and legal research.
