Festschrift für Fritz W. Scharpf - MPIfG

338 V · Erklärung und Verallgemeinerung
reconciled the cognitive and the normative, by meeting not only the requirements
of efficiency but also of equity, by respecting values of social solidarity
while at the same time reducing the costs of the welfare state. In the
Netherlands, similarly, the left-liberal coalition government that followed
the massive defeat of the conservative-left coalition in 1994 also built a new
discourse that emphasized the balance between efficiency and equity, with
great success judging from the 1998 elections. Authoritativeness is also increased
where the policy program is legitimated by a prior electoral discourse,
with the election campaign the ground for debate and deliberation
on the merits of rival policy programs – something which happened in Britain
in the Thatcher’s UK but not in New Zealand with either the Labor or
National Party (Schmidt 2002a).
In terms of discursive interactions, moreover, democratic legitimacy and
discurvise authority grow where the number of actors brought into the coordinative
discourse for consultation is increased and the deliberative content
of that consultation improved. Thus, government officials enhance legitimacy
and discursive authority when, before announcing a decision, rather
than engaging in a formal, relatively closed process of information-imparting,
they consult more widely in a more open process of real deliberation,
where objections are heard and, if possible, incorporated – often the
case in Sweden in the social policy arena on those issues where the state has
sole responsibility. Legitimacy and authority are also promoted where governments
delegate policy construction to committees of sages charged to
produce a policy recommendation on the basis of widespread consultation –
the solution of Jospin since 1997 for a number of controversial policies as
well as the route chosen by the Netherlands in those areas where the state
has sole responsibility (e.g., the draft) – or where they devolve responsibility
for discursive interactions to societal interests – as in France in the case
of the 35-hour work week, which created a coordinative discourse between
social partners in the shadow of the state. Deregulation is probably the most
far-reaching of such remedies, since it shifts the locus of the coordinative
discourse from government to independent regulatory agencies which, although
equally authoritative in tone, gain in legitimacy because they are required
by law to hear all sides and make decisions in a transparent manner –
without the arbitrariness that comes when civil servants use their administrative
discretion to make exceptions to the rules, as in France or in Italy.
The deliberative aspects of the communicative discourse can also be
strengthened where societal actors are not simply listened to, but heard. In
France, for example, business has gained a clearer communicative voice in