Linking Governance Networks to Local Democracy in Flanders Through the Concept of Democratic Anchorage

In the Belgian region of Flanders one can identify a proliferation of local network-like arrangements. Local governments establish relationships with e.g. autonomous agencies, other governments, private organizations or with a combination of these. A regional screening for example indicated a boom of collaborative arrangements over the last two decades (from less than 250 in 1990 to over 2200 today). This new organizational layer on top of the local political landscape challenges traditional merits of local democracy like popular control, local sovereignty and the primacy of politics. A central issue concerning these new arenas is their democratic anchorage or how to link them with the classic institutions of representative democracy. Here the paper argues local elected politicians can be seen as the lynchpin between both worlds. Specifically, the concept of democratic anchorage as developed by Sørensen and Torfing provides a good starting point. They argue democratic anchorage is not a certitude but depends on the way and the degree elected representatives adopt their role as metagoverners in order to steer these relatively self-governing arrangements. However to operationalize this concept the paper prompts one needs to re-think the relationship between the politicians and their forums not only in terms of metagovernance but also regarding practices of accountability and representation. The prime purpose of the paper is to expand the conceptual framework of democratic anchorage concerning governance networks bringing in theories of accountability and representation in order to develop an operational guide to research these emerging arrangements in Flanders. However the ambition is to pursue this in exchange with empirical material coming from pilot cases in selective Flemish regions. Therefore the paper will also examine a selection of governance networks in order to explore and illustrate the emerging research agenda.