“Post-democracy” and the public sphere: Informality and transparency in negotiated decision-making

Abstract

Growing numbers of informal consultation bodies, dialog forums and national summit meetings set up by governments indicate a double departure from neo-corporatist interest-intermediation: First from pragmatic, exchange-oriented bargaining towards value-based forums of discourse; second from bargaining processes largely conducted in camera to media events accompanied by public scrutiny. Although extra-parliamentary consultation and consensus formation has been interpreted as a ‘post-democratic' symptom of decline, developments in Germany reveal a tendency towards broader participation and greater transparency as well a shift from distributive issues towards post-materialist reform agendas. Furthermore, political consultations initiated by governments should not be equated with lobbying against governments. They rather attempt to curb one-sided influence and pressure politics. It is therefore proposed to revise the concept of post-democracy in its focus on lobbying and pressure politics in favour of an extended theory of “negotiation democracy”. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.