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Patterns of Democracies and Participatory Developments – A Matter of Path Dependency?

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Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

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Synonyms

Consensus democracy; Democratic progress; Democratization; Majoritarian democracy; Participation; Participatory innovations; Trajectories

Definitions

Patterns of Democracies refers to Lijpart’s seminal book, in which he identifies two different models of democracy, i.e., consensus and majoritarian democracy. In the majoritarian model, political power is concentrated, whereas, in the consensus model, power is shared, dispersed, and limited in a variety of ways.

Participatory Developments are defined as instruments and procedures implemented to increase and deepen citizens’ involvement in political will-formation and decision-making.

Path Dependency is a concept, which assumes that decisions today can only be understood in light of existing institutions. Path dependency insinuates that institutions change within the frame set by already existing institutions, i.e., that they follow a certain predetermined path.

Introduction

Democracy is a dynamic, protean concept and a...

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References

  • Aarts K, Thomassen J, van Ham C (2014) Globalization, representation, and attitudes towards democracy. In: Thomassen J (ed) Elections and democracy: representation and accountability. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 201–231

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  • Geissel B, Newton K (2012) Evaluating democratic innovations – curing the democratic malaise? Routledge, London/New York

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  • Lijphart A (1999) Patterns of democracy. Government forms and performance in thirty-six countries. Yale University Press, New Haven/London

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  • Michels A (2011) Innovations in democratic governance – how does citizen participation contribute to a better democracy? Int Rev Adm Sci 77(2):275–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith G (2009) Democratic innovations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt a.M., Germany

    Brigitte Geissel

  2. Utrecht University School of Governance, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Ank Michels

Authors
  1. Brigitte Geissel
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  2. Ank Michels
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brigitte Geissel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

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Geissel, B., Michels, A. (2018). Patterns of Democracies and Participatory Developments – A Matter of Path Dependency?. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3369-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3369-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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