Ruimte voor een democratische rechtsstaat - RePub - Erasmus ...

The trend of ‘good corporate governance’ is welcome if it increases transparancy and
accountability, and if it stimulates quality management.
A second strategy is to create more opportunities for institutionalised politics and the
population to interact. That requires staff or other support for political office holders, capacities of
political parties and skills of citizens. These are successive connections, because policy does well
by both formal politics and broad societal involvement but not all at the same time.
Representatives and participants need to recognise each other’s roles. For that matter, the concept
of citizenship is further discussed in the appendix concerning political action and particularly
Hannah Arendt’s thought.
A third strategy is to reform the institutions of public administration. Project
organisations that reach out to diverse interests and views can be commissioned with spatial
investments. These organisations would show horizontal accountability and would not be in need
of much top-down political steering. The very branches of national government might be
organised along this line, retuning the idea to separate political decision-making and expert policy
execution.
A fourth strategy is to seek a spatial equilibrium, both in separate cases and in general.
The policy arena for a spatial investment should comprise different actors who adhere to specific
meanings of spatial quality. In general the plurality and public character of cities is to be
maintained. Finally, within parliament some representation of regions might help national
government to cope with tensions such as the centre-periphery dichotomy.
286