Democratic governance and the changing role of users of public services

Abstract

Among those involved in the reform of institutions of public governance an intensiv debate has taken place about the possible consequences of a more active user role democracy. Some emphazise its negative effects while others focus on advantages for democracy. The article analyses differences and similarities in the arguments made by the parttakers in the debate, and direct our attantion towards a lack of clarity in the foundation of this debate about the analytical relationship between universalism and particularism. On this backgrund it is argued that an analysis of the relationship between democracy and an active user role calls for a reconcretization of the concept of the political.