Negotiating democracy

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Negotiating democracy is the political science generic term for democratic political systems in which conflicts over upcoming political decisions are dominated by negotiation - see also concordance democracy , proportional representation , consensus democracy , political entanglement  - but not through competition between political parties , changing government and hierarchical majority decision-making.

Negotiating democracies therefore require a high degree of cooperation and willingness to compromise on the part of the political elites, especially since they are often bound to unanimous decisions, qualified majorities or veto rights .

In reality, however, you will find mixed forms, never a pure negotiation democracy. Even in democracies , in which decisions are usually made by political majorities , negotiated solutions are becoming more important as a result of the penetration of politics by society as well as increasing differentiation of society. However, finding consensus often does not go beyond the lowest common denominator, so that blockades and backlog of reforms endanger political control.

Arthur Benz counts the USA and Switzerland among the negotiating democracies, and Dieter Grimm makes the assumption "that the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany has taken on traits of a negotiating democracy".

Dieter Grimm criticizes the fact that the negotiating democracy is "distancing itself from the target values ​​of the constitution ". “The regulations to which legislation is subject in the interests of participation , deliberation , transparency and control do not encompass negotiating democracy. In place of generally open participation, there is privileged participation, deliberation is being replaced by negotiation, transparency is giving way to the non-public, and instead of control, there is reliance on contractual compliance. ”Grimm's proposed solution is to adjust the constitution to negotiating democracy, in which the negotiation results must be published. To this end, he makes specific proposals on how the constitution should be changed.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Cf. Arthur Benz: Democratic reform through federalization? In: Claus Offe (Ed.): Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt, 2003, p. 172
  2. ↑ Dieter Grimm: Can negotiation democracy be constitutionalized? In: Claus Offe (Ed.): Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt, 2003, p. 191
  3. ↑ Dieter Grimm: Can negotiation democracy be constitutionalized? In: Claus Offe (Ed.): Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt / New York, 2003, p. 203
  4. ↑ Cf. Dieter Grimm: Can negotiation democracy be constitutionalized? In: Claus Offe (Ed.): Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt, 2003, p. 204
  5. ↑ See: Dieter Grimm: Can negotiation democracy be constitutionalized? In: Claus Offe (Ed.): Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt, 2003, p. 209

literature

  • Dieter Nohlen and Rainer-Olaf Schultze: Lexicon of Political Science , Munich 2002.
  • Helmut Voelzkow / Everhard Holtmann (eds.): Between competitive and negotiating democracy: Analyzes of the government system in the Federal Republic of Germany , Wiesbaden 2000.
  • Dieter Grimm : Can negotiation democracy be constitutionalized? In: Claus Offe (Ed.): Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt, 2003, ISBN 3-593-3728-6X