Delegation in Contemporary Democracies

As a social phenomenon linked to the growing differentiation of modern societies, delegation is one of several different modes of organisation that exist to make collective action successful. However, until now a unified view of political delegation, including newer forms such as delegation to political representatives, non-majoritarian institutions, and public bureaucracy, has been lacking. As the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, this text fills the gap, bringing together a wide range of literature to provide a complete and synthetic analysis of delegation in political systems. Divided into two parts, the book firstly deals with the standard chain of delegation, which extends from citizens to bureaucracy via parliaments and governments. In contrast, the second group of contributions focuses on what may be called the ‘next steps’ of delegation, including independent agencies, interest organisations, and the European Union. Written by leading specialists from Europe and the US, the text avoids much of the bias that can stem from an emphasis on specific delegation arrangements and/or countries, and examines both more traditional themes and the less-studied aspects of delegation research in political science, thus paving the way for a richer study of this important aspect of democratic institutions. With a broad and comparative approach, this is a significant volume for advanced students, researchers and professionals concerned with delegation in the areas of public policy, public administration and democratic theory.