Transformation, Co-Optation and (De)democratisation – Understanding Conditions for Democracy-Driven Governance

Scholars of participatory democracy have long noted dynamic interactions and transformations within and between political spaces that can foster (de)democratisation. At the heart of this dynamism lie (a) the mechanisms through which bottom-up, open and democratising spaces are often co-opted by existing institutions and (b) vice-versa, the processes through which top-down “closed” spaces can create opportunities for rupture and democratic challenges. We develop our analysis based on two main concepts. First, Mark Warren’s (2014) concept of “governance-driven democratisation” (GDD) which describes top-down and technocratic participatory governance aiming to produce better policies but mainly responding to bureaucratic rationales. Second, our concept of democracy-driven governance (DDG) (Bua and Bussu, in preparation) which refers to social movements’ efforts at inventing new and reclaiming and transforming existing spaces of participatory governance, embedded in representative institutions but responding more explicitly to bottom-up demands. Building on these two concepts, and seeking to flesh them out, this paper proposes a research agenda for a medium-n study using Qualitative Comparative Analysis to: • examine cases of GDD and DDG; • establish the conditions under which each type emerges and is institutionalised; and • explain outcomes such as co-optation or transformation inherent in the dynamic push and pull process of (de)democratisation that occurs between these spaces.