Multi-level Governance and Democracy: A Faustian Bargain?

Abstract

Guy Peters and Jon Pierre address multi‐level governance both as an analytical concept and as a system adopted by decision‐makers for its capacity to address the complex governance demands of the modern epoch. In relation to the latter, they consider whether the problem‐solving capacity of multi‐level governance and the achievement of effective policy outcomes take precedence over democratic input and accountability. This leads to the argument that multi‐level governance could be a ‘Faustian bargain’ in which, ‘core values of democratic government are traded for accommodation, consensus and the purported efficiency in governance’, or put another way, where ‘informal patterns of political coordination could in fact be a strategy for political interests to escape or by‐pass regulations put in place explicitly to prevent that from happening’.