Modernizing German Local Government: Bringing the People Back in?

Abstract

Modernization efforts in government and public administration are generally to achieve one goal: an increase in legitimacy of the respective political system, i.e. an increase in public acceptance and support. Depending on the actual problems to be solved, there are two possible paths to accomplish this goal. On the one hand, democratic regimes gain in public acceptance by strengthening their input-legitimacy. Input-legitimacy results from politics being in accordance with the preferences and the moral standards of the citizens. It may be seen as a function of political participation, institutional transparency and political responsiveness. On the other hand, legitimacy can be achieved by effectively promoting the common welfare, that is by increasing the output-legitimacy of the political system (Scharpf 1999; Vetter/Kersting 2003). Although these two paths are often seen as contradictory, neither of them may be neglected when promoting the stability and survival of a democracy. Due to the severe economic problems that hit most Western democracies at the end of the last decade, much if not most of the actual debate on public sector modernization touches the aspect of output-legitimacy. As (2003: 29) puts it, “the talk about reform is dominated by a New Public Management-inspired terminology”. In Germany, however, major institutional and administrative changes additionally resulted from a longstanding debate surrounding the question of how to increase citizen participation in politics, thereby strengthening input-legitimacy.