Abstract Ireland's social partnership process, now under attack from a number of quarters, has repeatedly been charged with being 'undemocratic' in that it undermines the sovereign position of elected political representatives, with key policy formulation and decision-making taking place in fora outside the institutions of representative democracy. These critiques echo those against new forms of networked governance more globally. A key question therefore is how (and if) democracy may be deepened within social partnership or its potential successor(s). This article addresses this question by employing a post-liberal democratic framework to examine social partnership in practice, and by drawing lessons from another partnership process, Malawi's PRSP. Drawing from Malawi's experience, it is argued that democracy can be deepened within social partnership when governance deliberations and negotiations are conducted under conditions of vibrant public debate and genuine perspective-based representation, and when the communicative and discursive norms are widened to allow for such representation.

Url http://doras.dcu.ie/14924/1/IPSsubmissionRevisedMar21.doc

Collections Ireland -> Dublin City University -> DCU Faculties and Centres = DCU Faculties and Schools: Faculty of Humanities and Social Science
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> Publication Type = Article
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> Subject = Social Sciences: Political science
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> Status = Published
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> Subject = Social Sciences: Sociology
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> DCU Faculties and Centres = Research Initiatives and Centres
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> Subject = Social Sciences
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> Subject = Social Sciences: Globalization
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> DCU Faculties and Centres = DCU Faculties and Schools
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> DCU Faculties and Centres = Research Initiatives and Centres: Centre for International Studies (CIS)
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> DCU Faculties and Centres = DCU Faculties and Schools: Faculty of Humanities and Social Science: School of Law and Government
Ireland -> Dublin City University -> Subject = Social Sciences: Public administration